You're Not Alone
by WellThisIsANewURLInnit
Summary: Logan is fed up with Scott's Denial, so he does something about it. Little does he know what effect this action will have on the relationship between him and the other man. NOT SLASH. Warning: Spanking of an adult. X3 never happened. OOC. Edit: I'M BACK!
1. Chapter 1

"Shut it, bub," Logan said to one of the many students that day that had mouthed off to him. He was getting really tired of this. Didn't anyone teach kids respect anymore? If not to each other, respect for their elders? God knew Logan was practically an effing dinosaur, judging from snatches of dreams he had remembered. Images of men in civil war getup. Blood and death and fighting and more wars that you should ever see in one lifetime.

And yet here he was, taking lip from fifteen-year-olds.

Logan decided he needed a beer. Yes… Beer makes the world go round. He would drink his last good, strong, Canadian beer and relax…

"What the hell you doing, Scooter?" He growled at the glasses-wearing man who was currently sitting in the breakfast nook.

Drinking Logan's last beer.

"Drinking beer?" Scott said as if it were the most natural thing ever.

"My beer!" Logan held back a roar. Scott looked at the label on the bottle.

"Oh. So it is. Imagine that." And he gave a shit-eating grin as he brought the bottle up to his lips.

"Goddamn it!" Logan snapped. "I am so fucking tired of people not respecting me, my authority, or my stuff!"

"Whatcha gonna do about it, old man?" Scott challenged him.

"This," Logan said as he walked over to the breakfast nook. He ripped the bottle out of Scott's hand, and yanked Scott up out of his seat by the wrist. Logan planted his foot in the spot Scooter's butt had just vacated. Scott was then turned over Logan's knee.

"What the hell!" Scott protested. "Put me down!" Logan just raised his arm and smacked his palm down onto Scott's upended rear.

"Ow! You can't do this to me, you motherfucker! I'm a grown man!"

"Then act like one!" **SMACK!**

Since Jean's death, Scott had been acting up worse than the kids at the mansion. He had been rude, lazy, and inconsiderate—hardly becoming of the leader of the X-Men.

Now, Logan understood grieving. Lord knows he had done enough of it in his time. He also understood that Scott wouldn't be himself while he was grieving. But what Scott was doing wasn't grieving. It was ignoring the issue. He still wouldn't let himself believe Jean was dead. And in ignoring this natural process, Scott had started acting like a petulant child.

Scott was the main role model in the mansion, however. Which made the kids think that it was okay to mouth off and ignore their responsibilities, among other things.

"You need to shape up, Slim. This has gotta stop," Logan growled and slammed his hand down on the other man's butt again. Scott yelped at the contact—It was actually starting to hurt!

"Ya need to deal with your feelings, not avoid them," **SMACK SMACK** "And you need to set a better example for these kids."

"You're—AH!—One to talk," Scott bit out.

"I'm tired of you talkin' to me— and everyone else —like that!" Logan reached under Scott and undid his jeans, pulling them down with his boxers. Scott really started thrashing then.

"Let me up! Stop it!" Scott demanded.

**SMACK! SMACK! **"Or what, shades?"

"Oww! I'll tell the Professor!" Scott put his hand back to cover himself. Logan just aimed lower, and covered the tops of his thighs with painful, stinging smacks.

"Go ahead, tell him. I don't care. And move that hand, boy!" Logan finished his sentence with a thunderous smack to the man's quickly reddening thighs. Scott complied, and Logan started back on his rosy cheeks.

"I'm not a boy! I'm a grownup," Scott whined as tears started streaming out from under his glasses.

"Then prove it to me and stop acting like a little kid to avoid your pain!"

"No! I'm not _in_ any pain, because she's NOT dead!"

"Yes! She is!" Logan continued to rain punishing blows down on Scott's butt.

"No…" Scott sobbed as Logan started on his sit spots. "I don't want her to be!"

"Nobody does," Logan's tone was a bit softer. "But she is and you can't ignore it anymore."

"I know… I know that." Scott sobbed and stopped fighting the punishment Logan was dealing out. "I'm sorry!" he sobbed. "I won't be so stupid anymore… I just don't wanna be alone…"

Logan slowed his pace a bit. "You ain't alone, Scott."

"Yeah… And who's supposed to help me through this? You?" Scott was involuntarily shifting under the smacks. "Oww…"

"Yeah, Scott. Me, the Professor, Storm. We'll all help you." He then stopped his barrage on Scott's behind and let him up.

Scott hissed through his teeth as he clothed himself.

"Hunh?" Scott let out a surprised grunt as Logan pulled him into a hug. Though, after getting over the shock, Scott was quick to throw his arms around the other man. He felt so alone nowadays. Jean had been the only person besides the Professor that he had really been close to. And once he lost her, his heart broke and he turned a cold shoulder on the professor. But now he found himself starved for human contact, hating himself for never letting anyone in.

As his behind throbbed and burned, he wondered if finding a friend in Logan was at all a good idea. _Maybe I'll just have to wait and see, _He thought as he hugged the feral man tighter.

AN/ While I do like slash, and write it, this fic won't be slash. (At least not between these two. If I put it in, it will probably end up being minor characters or something.) Drop me a line, please!

-Z


	2. Chapter 2

Scott woke up in a strange bed and rolled over onto his back, which he instantly regretted.

"Agh." He rolled back onto his front, trying to remember what had happened. He had stolen a beer from Logan, only to have the feral man walk in and find him. Then Logan had finally risen to Scott's baiting… But not in the way Scott had anticipated. And then Logan had held him… Scott didn't dwell on that part of last night too long. It was almost more embarrassing than the spanking.

Scott didn't want to sleep in his and Jean's room anymore. Too painful. All her stuff was exactly how she had left it. The room still smelled like her. And all the memories… It was just too much. Logan seemed to have sensed this, because he had dragged Scott into his own room and threw a pair of sweats and a wifebeater at him.

This explained why he woke up in a warm room that smelled faintly of cigar smoke, whiskey, and… perfume?

Okay then.

Scott got off the bed and stood up to stretch. He wondered where Logan was. Right on cue, the feral man walked in dressed only in a pair of track pants. He threw some kind of mat, which he had carried in with him, into his closet. At the questioning glance Scott threw him, he responded with one word.

"Meditating."

"Oh." Scott shifted on his feet for a moment. "Um. I'm gonna, uh…" he gestured to the general area of the stairs. "Food."

Logan smirked.

Taking that as his answer, Scott left Logan's room still dressed in his borrowed clothes.

He regretted this as soon as he saw Rogue coming down the hallway toward him. They stood there for a minute and she sized him up.

"Scott?" she smirked. "Whatcha doin?"

Scott could swear he felt himself blush.

"Food."

Logan then emerged from his room dressed in his regular jeans and wifebeater. Rogue turned her attention on him and a big grin broke out on her face. "Is there somethin' you two ain't tellin' me, Logan?"

"Very funny."

"Ah think Storm would be disappointed in you, Logan."

He snickered at that one. "Don't worry kid, I ain't the cheatin' type."

"Wait," Scott interjected. "You… And Ororo?" _That certainly explains the perfume smell in Logan's room. Storm's perfume._

Rogue answered for Logan. "Yep, they're an _item_. And they're positively adorable."

"Can it." Logan's manner turned gruff. "The only reason _you _even know is because you're practically my shadow." Rogue stuck her tongue out at him. "Ro and I decided to keep it quiet from the students, remember?"

"Sure," Rogue rolled her eyes. "But last time I checked, Scott wasn't a student."

Logan's eye roll was oddly similar to Rogue's. "Whatever. We're in a public hallway. Let's just get down there. We'll be late for breakfast."

"What? What time is it?" Scott asked worriedly. He hadn't been to the group breakfast (or any other group meals) for months, trying to avoid everybody and their conversation.

"'S almost eight. Why?" Rogue asked him.

"Um. I think I'm gonna just skip breakfast. I'm not—"

"No you ain't. Get down there." Logan was staring him down.

"I don't want to, Logan," Scott insisted. He stared up into Logan's eyes, starting a little face off. Rogue decided it was best to let them have a moment, and quietly slipped away.

"I don't care. When was the last time you ate a regular meal?"

"I don't—Sunday, er, last fri—What do you care?" he stuttered out indignantly.

"Look a you, slim. You've lost too much weight to be healthy. You're always exhausted. You need to put on some pounds. So move it."

"My weight is just fine—Ow!" Logan had planted a stinging smack on Scott's sore behind. Scott's mouth dropped open and it was painfully obvious to Logan that he was giving his biggest, saddest puppy dog eyes behind his ruby quartz glasses. "What was that for?"

"Until you start takin' care of yourself willingly again, I'm gonna make _sure _you don't skip meals or do any of the other stupid things you've been doing."

"I can take care of myself." The statement even sounded whiny to Scott's ears. Logan just raised his eyebrow and grabbed Scott's shoulder to guide him down the stairs.

By the time they got downstairs, Scott tried—and failed—to shrug Logan's hand off. Logan just grasped his shoulder tighter and led Scott over to the buffet.

"Logan! The students are staring," Scott whispered harshly.

"Let 'em stare, I'm makin' sure you eat some _real_ food."

"Jesus, Logan! I can get food without your approval," he growled. Or attempted to growl. Logan ignored the tone.

"Not today you can't. I wanna make sure you're not just gonna grab a granola bar," he replied as he grabbed two plates. "Don't think I don't know what you been doin' boy."

"'M an adult," Scott muttered under his breath before snatching one of the plates away from Logan. "Not a 'boy.'"

"I don't like your tone, kid," Logan said menacingly. Scott huffed a breath out and went ahead of Logan, spooning heaps of scrambled eggs and hash browns and four mini-muffins onto his plate.

"Happy?" he snapped at the bull-headed man.

"Very," Logan smiled smugly. Scott just tried to keep from pouting as Logan rumpled his hair.

The professor smiled warmly at Scott as he and Logan sat down at the teacher's table (plus Rogue).

"It's good to see you back with the rest of us, Scott. We've all missed you."

Scott grunted into his coffee. "I was always here, Professor."

The professor gave him a somber smile. "In body, perhaps."

"Well, he's here now, Chuck." Logan turned the glass at his place over. "Pass me the milk, kid."

Scott and rogue both reached for it. Scott coughed and pulled his hand back as he realized that Logan probably meant the order for Rogue. Rogue gave a knowing smirk (as did the Professor), and Storm quirked an eyebrow.

Realizing that he was blushing brighter than a sunset, Scott turned down to his plate and began shoveling food into his mouth.

One of Rogue's roommates, Jubilee, came up to their table then.

"Hey, Mr. Summers! Good to have ya back!" She then turned to Rogue. "Come on, chica. Sit with us for once." She tried to tug Rogue toward the table that held Pete, Kitty, Bobby, and Sam.

"Uh… no. Sorry, Jubes." Jubilee gave her southern friend a practiced pout.

"Please, chica?"

"No, Jubes. I… I just feel more, um, comfortable with the adults." Jubilee looked hurt. "No! No, it's not like that… I didn't mean… I just—Magneto thinks that you're insufferable. He shuts up when Ah'm just hangin' out with you guys, or studyin' or somethin' but he definitely insists on meals with the adults. Plus it's the only time Ah get with Logan when he's not workin' out or fixin' somethin."

_At least everybody else thinks I'm an adult, _Scott thought sourly. Jubilee rolled her eyes at Rogue.

"Honestly, Roguey. It's Magneto this, Magneto that."

"He's very opinionated. And imagine how it must be for him to be stuck in the mind of a teenage girl."

"I take the point. We're over there if you need us," and Jubilee walked off.

Rogue rubbed her temples.

"Are you all right, Rogue?" the professor asked her.

"Yeah… Fine."

Logan snorted. "No you ain't."

Rogue scowled at him. "Oh, what? Like you would just be peachy keen all the time with a cynical old man in your head constantly quoting his yiddish mother and telling you to pay attention more and eat right and go to sleep early and this and that and the other thing!" Rogue heaved an exasperated sigh. "He's more naggy than _you _are, Logan. Which is saying something, believe me."

"Hey," Logan protested.

"No. She's right," Scott interjected. "You're a huge nag." Scott was taking an odd amount of delight in the menacing look Logan was giving him.

"Watch your mouth, boy," Logan warned.

"Nag, nag, nag." Scott had a gleeful grin on his face as he mocked the other man. "Like a mother hen. Meddling old man."

Scott hadn't watched what Logan was doing as he made his last few comments, and was surprised when the feral had shut him up by shoving a piece of toast halfway into his mouth. He grunted out a 'hey!' from around the toast.

"And you're mouthy. Like a little kid. An undisciplined child." Logan let the thinly veiled threat hang in the air while Scott chewed his toast. When he was done, he merely stuck his tongue out at Logan. Storm wasn't even trying to conceal her laughter and the Professor had a merry glint in his eye.

_It's good to see him in higher spirits, _the professor thought. He watched Logan and Scott together for a moment. _Those two will definitely be good for each other._

AN/ Hi there! If any of you reading would drop me a line, that would rock! I wanna know if you guys want to see more interaction with Scott and Logan, or if I should add some other characters in soon. (But you already just put a bunch more characters in, Z.) Yeah, I know. But Scotty needs other people besides Logan. (Nuh-uh.) Yeah huh. And besides, I adore Rogue. And a WHOLE FRIGGIN BUNCH of other characters. So drop me a line to stop me from talking to myself. It's freaking out the other Starbucks customers.

—Z


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Hey, Scott. You okay?" Rogue asked him after breakfast as they walked toward Scott's maths class.

"Um, fine. Why?" _Hey. Wait a minute. When did I start letting a student call me by my first name?_

"Oh, no reason. I just noticed you were squirming a lot during breakfast." Rogue smirked. Scott blushed bright red.

_I haven't blushed this much in twenty seven years of life._

"I was just… Just anxious to get to the classroom…"

"Right," she said in a disbelieving tone. "I hope Logan wasn't too hard on you."

"What!"

She gave him a 'don't think you're kidding me with that act' look.

"Please, Scott. Logan's been my mentor-type-figure for coming on three years now."

"And just what are you suggesting, Rogue?" Scott was panicky now.

"I think you know what I'm suggesting," she informed him as they came up to the classroom door. She stopped him from going in with a hand on his arm. "Anyway. I want you to know that Logan's not the only person who's worried about you."

"Um, thanks, Rogue."

She smiled at him and went into the classroom.

XXXXXXXXXX

After his first period maths class, Scott didn't have any more classes until after lunch. He usually took this time to throw himself into his work, to try and forget the real world. Pro: this usually meant that the students got their quizzes and tests and what have you handed back the day after they were turned in. Con: it also meant it was about three hours (counting lunch hour) that Scott was ignoring his own needs.

This routine was about to change, though, if Logan had anything to do with it.

And we all know what a busybody Logan can be if he puts his mind to it.

Scott looked up as his classroom door opened right after the lunch bell for the students rang.

"Um, hi Logan. Do you need something…?"

"Yeah. I need you to get upstairs for lunch."

"Um…"

"Well, come on. What are you waiting for?"

"I have… Papers, work…"

"And it ain't runnin' away."

Not feeling up to arguing with the man, Scott gave a long-suffering sigh and straightened the papers on his desk.

Once in line for the lunch buffet, Scott grumbled, "Are you gonna start controlling every meal I eat?"

"I'm not controlling the meals." Logan reached for plates for him and Scott. "I'm just making sure you eat them."

"Well, what if I did this?" Scott challenged. He picked up five cookies from the dessert table, a coke, and a Hershey bar. "Lunch!"

"Scott…" Logan warned. Scott just gave a fluttery finger wave as he walked over to the teacher's table (plus Rogue).

"Hey, Scott. Would you like some food with your sugar?" Storm smiled.

"Yes, actually. I don't even like this stuff." Scott started picking at a cookie, until Logan came up and he stuffed almost the whole thing in his mouth. Logan raised an eyebrow.

"You don't even like that stuff," Logan reminded him. "Enhanced hearing, rmember?"

Scott swallowed the huge mouthful of baked good painfully. "I can learn to like it," he said.

Logan rolled his eyes and snatched Scott's plate away from him. Ignoring the protests of 'hey, I was eating that!' Logan put a plate full of normal food in front of the stubborn mutant.

"And you keep telling me you're a grownup," Logan scoffed.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Where you goin?"

"Nowhere, Logan. Just out," Scott grumbled.

"You got that first part right! It's one o' clock in the morning! Go to bed," Logan ordered him. Without turning around, Scott flipped him the bird.

"Fuck off. You've been ordering me around all day, I'm done!"

And before Logan could follow after him, Scott had ran to the garage and stolen Logan's bike.

"That kid must not have ANY sense of self preservation," Logan growled to himself.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Vhat are you looking at, mien fruend?" Nightcrawler asked as he peered over Logan's shoulder in the kitchen. Logan showed Kurt a small screen with a map of the greater New York area.

"See that little green blip on the screen?" Logan asked. Kurt nodded. "That's my bike."

"Isn't it just… Kind of driving around in circles?"

"Yep. Any minute now, It's going to run out of gas. So, stick around, I'm going to need you to 'port me out there."

"Alright, herr Logan. Who is on the bike, if I may ask?"

"Scott."

Kurt gave him an odd look. _Isn't Scott an adult? I thought so… Maybe zis is one of those cultural differences. Americans are very strange._

"Aaaaand… There it goes. He stopped. Think you can get me there?" Logan asked, pointing to the small screen.

"It might take a few trips… But yes." Kurt put a hand on Logan's shoulder and the next thing Logan knew, they were in the polluted air over NYC. After that, they were standing outside a service station, where Logan's bike was hooked up to a gas hose.

Logan couldn't see Scott anywhere, so he must have been inside paying.

"You should go on and head home, Kurt," Logan said. "I wanna talk to Scott."

_That sounded a bit too menacing for comfort, _Kurt thought.

"Ah, yes. Well. See you at home," Kurt said before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Logan went over and sat on his bike. Scott emerged shortly from the store, Stopping in his tracks when he saw Logan. Logan got up and took the hose out of the gas tank opening. When he turned back around, he crooked a finger, gesturing Scott to come closer.

"Um, I think I'm good over here," Scott mumbled.

"Come here," Logan ordered quietly. Seemingly against his own will, Scott complied and approached the man slowly. Scott's logic was, Logan wouldn't do anything to him in public.

Scott's logic, however, would turn out to be wrong.

"You've been gone for _hours_! Boy, there are not a whole lot of things I will tolerate from you right now," Logan started. "_Least _of all _stealing my bike._"

Scott swallowed the lump in his throat.

"Now, I know I didn't specifically say that. But that was only because I figured that it was one of those unspoken rules. Now, answer me truthfully, boy. Did you think I wouldn't be unhappy with you doing something like that?"

"Um, ah, no. I-I knew you wouldn't be, er, particularly pleased," Scott stuttered.

"Okay then. Now, I'm gonna show you what will happen if you ever do this again, no matter where I find you." Logan's hand shot out and grasped Scott's arm. Gently, yet firmly, Logan lowered Scott face down over the seat of the bike. Scott's pants were then yanked down to his knees, boxers accompanying them.

"Logan!" Scott yelped out. "Oh, god please, Logan! If you have to do this, _please _don't do it here!" Scott started kicking his legs as much as his pants around his knees would let him. "Anyone could see us!"

"Well, maybe you should have considered your punishment before you took off so friggin' late, on MY bike! 1: Never steal my bike! 2: I told you to go to bed!" Ending the dialogue, Logan started planting hard, stinging smacks on Scott's bare butt.

As Logan set in a burn on his behind, Scott thought about what he'd done.

_I don't know why I took off on Logan's bike. I'm so confused… I don't know why I've been doing half the things I've been doing. _Scott yelped as a particularly hard flurry of spanks landed at the spot where his thighs and behind connected. _But I know I regret it._

Logan continued to build up a fire that reached underneath Scott's skin, until Scott started sobbing over the bike. Logan slowed his pace a little.

"Now, here's what's going to happen. I'm going to finish spanking you, we're going to go home, and go to sleep. Then tomorrow, I'm going to wake you up after you've slept a good eight hours so we can have a little chat with the professor."

Scott was crying too hard to reply properly, and just nodded. Logan finished up with a few powerful spanks to the tops of his thighs. His breath hitched as Logan pulled his clothes up for him, and then pulled him up.

"It hurts, Logan…" Scott sobbed out.

"Well, then, I guess I done my job right, eh Scotty?" Scott just cried. Logan couldn't stand seeing the young man looking so broken, and pulled Scott down to sit with him on the bike and cry into his chest.

"I'm s-sorry," he told Logan. "I don't know what the hell's been going on with me!"

Logan held him close. "I don't know what you're going through either, but that's why we're gonna talk to the professor. Now, come on. If we start for home now, we should be there by the time it gets light out." Scott nodded and wiped his nose on his sleeve.

Although every bounce and bump they hit on the ride home sent Scott's behind throbbing, he was content in knowing that Logan truly cared about him and wouldn't give up on him.

AN/ And here's another chapter for all you lovely readers. Drop me a line, please? You can review anonymously, too. ;) Would greatly appreciate it.

Anyway, one of my wonderful reviewers requested ScottXRogue. Now, while I believe that ANY pairing, if written well, is good, I can't write Scouge. But there was a bit of interaction there for ya. I'm thinking they would make great partners in crime…

—Z


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Logan woke up at about two the next afternoon, and looked down at Scott, who had managed to lay sideways across the bed—and Logan—during the night. He chuckled as he noticed the both of them had been asleep for nearly ten hours.

"Scott… Wake up," Logan gently shook the younger man's shoulder.

Scott opened his bleary eyes, confused as to why he was currently draped across Logan's torso as opposed to waking up lonely in a room that smelled of Jean's perfume.

_Why does my butt hurt? _

"Nnnngh…Hrrns" (translation: ow, hurts.)

Oh… Yeah. Stole Logan's bike…

"C'mon, Scotty, let's get some food."

Scott, with Logan's help, got up and off the bed.

"I'm still in borrowed clothes, Logan."

"Ain't nobody gonna be in the kitchen."

"Logannnn…"

Logan rolled his eyes at the younger man.

"Fine. You grab a shower in the student's bathroom, I'll get you some clothes from your old room."

Scott nodded, and headed to the door. He stopped short before he opened the door, though.

"Why _do_ you still sleep in the student's wing, anyway, Logan?"

"Wanted to stay close to Mar—Rogue," he answered. "She was pretty troubled a couple years back, I wanted her to not have to walk too far to my room if she had a nightmare or something." He looked Scott up and down for a moment. "I might have to move into the teacher's wing now, though."

Scott ducked his head when he felt a flush rising on his skin at the implication that Logan felt the need to be close to him at night.

Without another word, Scott headed for the bathroom. Meanwhile, Logan turned a right outside his door and headed toward Scott and Jean's old room.

_Uhhh… Chuck? _He reached out tentatively with his mind.

_Yes, Logan?_

_Can me an' Scott come and talk to ya?_

_Might I ask why?_

_It's sort of a long story. But anyway—_

_Perhaps you should inform me later. I'm in the middle of class, and I'm afraid that stopping in the middle of a sentence and getting a far-off look in my eye earns some odd looks from high schoolers._

_I take the point, _he thought as he approached Scott's old door. _See ya later, Chuck._ The professor gave a mental nod of acknowledgement, ending the conversation.

_I will never get used to that. _

Grabbing a random pair of slacks from a hangar, and another random shirt, he headed over to the drawers. Snagging a pair of boxers, he headed out of the room. As he was walking to the bathroom, he looked down at the clothes in his hands. _Do these colors go together? Blue slacks and an orange shirt… why not? The Broncos use blue and orange._

He knocked on the bathroom door. "Scotty?"

"Yeah." He opened the door and took the clothes, a towel wrapped around his waist and eyes screwed shut. Without his glasses, Logan could see the dark circles under Scott's eyes.

"Jeez, kid. You look like hell."

"Doesn't surprise me," he said through the door. "You and me were up till like four last night." He emerged from the bathroom, glasses on, fully dressed, and hair dripping.

Logan snorted. "Please, Scotty. Those bags under your eyes are not overnight bags. And besides," he drawled as they started down the stairs. "We slept for eleven hours."

"Yeah, well, my body clock's on a certain schedule."

"Which is 'hey, Scott! Please go to sleep, you've been up for forty hours already!'" Logan said in a high pitched voice. "And you say, 'no. I still have more paperwork that will not run away, but I believe that if I don't get all of it accomplished right now, it will explode.'"

"You think I have conversations with my body?"

"I wouldn't put it past you. Tired people talk to themselves."

"Right. And even if my body and I _did _start having in-depth conversations about my sleeping habits, it would _not _be that high pitched."

"You're right," Logan said before opening the kitchen door. "It would be higher."

Scott pouted.

"You want breakfast or lunch?" Logan asked him.

2"Atually, I'm not—" Scott was silenced by Logan's glare. "Um. Breakfast, that was. I'm in the mood for breakfast." Logan nodded and turned to get a pan out, when Storm came in.

"Ah, I see you two have the same idea I had." She went over and slipped her arms around Logan's neck.

"If you mean a snack, then no." Logan wrapped his arms around her waist. "This is breakfast for us."

"Hmm." She peered around him and looked at the stuff he had gotten out. "Omelets?"

"Yep."

"Then I'll make some waffles and we can all eat." She kissed him quickly, and he grinned at her.

"I like the way you think, woman."

"Um," Scott ventured. "Is there anything I can help with?" Scott didn't fancy sitting down yet, as none of the chairs had cushions on them. That, and the little show of couple's love he had just witnessed had reminded him painfully of small, happy moments he had shared with Jean.

When she was still alive.

"Yeah, I think so." Storm gave him a bright smile. "You can get out the flour, milk, and eggs. I'll get the baking powder, sugar, and I think we have some oil in the outside fridge." She squeezed his shoulder as she walked by. He smiled and did as she asked.

Logan, on the other hand, got distracted while watching her ass as she walked out.

XXXXXXXXXX

After the food had been made, Storm sent both of them to the breakfast nook while she dished omelets and waffles up for the three of them. As she brought the tray of plates over to the table, she hummed 'You Are My Sunshine.' A lump caught in Scott's throat while she set a plate in front of him.

"Jean used to sing that one all the time," he said softly. Storm smiled gently.

"I know. It was one of her favorites."

Logan Looked at Scott.

"Tell me about her," he requested.

"You knew her, Logan," Scott brushed off. "As I seem to recall, you were pretty infatuated with her yourself."

"Yeah, she was beautiful, and she was nice. She didn't think of me as an animal, either, which was nice. But I didn't really know her. Just humor me, Scotty."

Logan ignored the look Ororo gave him upon hearing the nickname.

"Well," Scott started, biting his lip. "Jean had this quality, this grace. A shining light. She could make a whole room sit p and pay attention just by walking into it." Scott held his breath for a moment, trying to dull the ache in his heart by distracting himself with an ache in his lungs. After composing himself, he spoke again.

"The sun would fall on her and seem dull in comparison. Her embrace was warm and gentle, comforting any pain." Scott blinked back a few tears. "She was generous to a fault. So kind, so giving… She died for that generosity, you know." Scott tried unsuccessfully to hold back a sob.

"No, Scotty," Logan told him. "She didn't die for generosity. She died for us. For you."

Scott couldn't help but let the tears fall now.

"She made me want to be a better person… Jean was the one who made me strive to be the best person I could be. Now that she's gone, I don't even know who… What I am anymore." His arms slipped off the tabletop to wrap around his torso in a tight self-hug.

"Hey, none of that," Logan said. He wrapped an arm around Scott, coaxing the man to hug him back.

"I'm lost, Logan."

"No, Scott, you can never be lost," Storm interjected. She got up from her seat across from the two men in favor of sitting right next to Scott. She rubbed soothing circles on his back, and eventually wrapped her arms around his neck from behind. "You wanna know why, Scotty?" she asked, adopting Logan's endearment.

"Why?" he sniffled into Logan's shirt.

"Because you have us." She unwrapped herself from the two men and signaled Logan to let him go for a minute. Once he did so, she grabbed Scott's chin in her hand and made him look at her. "Are you looking me in the eye?" she asked. He nodded into her hand. "We love you, Scott." She wiped some teard off his cheeks. "Me, Logan, the Professor, Hank, Rogue… We love you. You are _not_, and will never _be_, lost."

He graced her with a cautious smile. "Thanks, Ro." She grinned and pulled him into a proper hug.

"Any time, darling boy."

Storm pulled her food from the other side of the table so that she could eat next to Scott.

_Logan? _The Professor's voice came in his head. He jumped a little bit outwardly.

"Uh, yeah Chuck?" he answered mentally and physically so that the two next to him would know what was going on.

_Classes are over for the day. You may come see me in my office whenever you'd like._

_Sure, Chuck. We're gonna finish eatin' and head over there._

_I'll be here._

"Finish your food, Kiddo. We got an appointment with the Prof."

Scott pulled a face. "_Must_ you call me that?"

"Yes," Logan and Ororo answered simultaneously.

"_Great_."

AN/ The end of this chapter seriously would not stop tugging at my brain until I got out of my warm bed in my flimsy PJ's and wrote the last page and a half literally shivering at my keyboard at 4:50 am. (which, admittedly, is only about an hour later than I usually head to bed, but still. Freakin' cold out here.)

Anyway, I hope anyone that is actually reading this story (such as my lovely readers lucy, Demon Sin, Nicky 1992, Mariez, bluerose88, Unicorn Filly, Ryromaniac, ficwriterjet, Ashleyder1, affleckfan08, and rallyx. Thank you so much, guys.) is happy, because I'M COLD. Anyway, hope you liked this fluff. Next chapter coming soon!


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The two men walked into the Professor's study after they finished eating.

"Hello," Charles greeted. He got a merry glint in his eye. "My, Scott. You're certainly looking colorful today."

Scott looked sown at his clothes. He was wearing darkish slacks and a light shirt, as far as he could tell.

"I am?" Scott looked over to Logan. "What did you do?"

"What am I, the art teacher?" Logan grimaced.

The Professor chuckled. "What did you two need?"

Scott happily took a seat on the comfortable leather couch in front of the Professor's desk. It was a welcome change to the hard wooden bench of the breakfast table.

"Well, to put it bluntly, Chuck, we wanna know what's wrong with this kid." He jerked a thumb toward Scott.

"Care to elaborate?" the Professor seemed perplexed.

"Well, he's been…" Logan left off, looking over to Scott. Scott shifted in his seat a bit.

"Acting out," Scott finished quietly.

"I see." The Professor's brow furrowed. "Might I take a look into your mind, Scott?" Scott's face flushed at the prospect. It was bad enough that Rogue knew, but the Professor was his mentor! Alas, he really did want to know what the hell he was doing.

"Um… Sure, Professor."

Logan watched as the two men grew silent for about five minutes.

Emerging from Scott's mind with a bit of new understanding, the professor opened his eyes.

"You say that Jean made you want to be the best man you could be."

Scott nodded.

"When you first met Jean, you were only in your young teens. You had gone through a lot already, and had to mature quickly." The professor drew in a breath. "When you met her, you immediately tried to act like an adult, because of the small age difference between you two. In doing this, you haven't ever gone through a period of teenage rebellion."

"Is that what this is?" Logan asked. "Teenager logic?"

"Essentially, yes." The professor looked over to Scott again. "As soon as Jean died, you cried. You were in shock and starting to grieve. But your mind registered the intense emotions of pain as unacceptable, and you refused to believe she was gone. But once Logan brought you back into the real world, your psyche started grieving again. In experiencing _those _Negative emotions, your subconscious also allowed you to start your belated rebellion."

Scott's jaw couldn't drop lower if it came unhinged.

His mind brought him back to being a teenager? Well, that certainly explained why he was feeling so unsure of himself. For as long as he could remember, he had been a strong and confident person, he had never gone through that awkward stage.

Now it turned out that that was Jean's influence, too.

"So you're telling me that as long as I'm grieving over Jean, I'm going to act out like a teenager?" Scott was horrified.

"Depending on how long you grieve, you could be going through this stage even longer than—"

"No! I'm going to fight this. Now that I know what's going on, I'll—"

"Be good?" Logan grinned at him. Scott scowled at him.

"I was _going_ to say 'recognize my problems and work through them in an adult manner.'"

"So, you'll be good." Logan was grinning even wider now.

Scott heaved a sigh and rested his head in his hands. "Yes, Logan. If it would appease you, I will 'be good.'"

Charles smiled in amusement at the two men.

_Easier said than done, I'm afraid, _he thought.

XXXXXXXXXX

_I'm telling you, child. The answer is 'no answer.' It's a trick question, because it's a prime number. _

_Shut up, please. Please just let me learn on my own, Mr. Lensherr._

_I'm only trying to help, dear._

_You are ALWAYS trying to help! I appreciate it, really I do, but I need some space in here!_

_You think I want to be trapped here? _

_I know you don't. Because you've told me that TEN THOUSAND TIMES!_

_Well, excuse _me_._

_Do you think I WANT a sixty year old man in my head? Do you know how embarrassing that is for me?_

_Don't worry. I look away when there's 'girl stuff' going on._

_Whatever. Not like you don't know. _

_I knew about—_

"Shut up!" Rogue said loudly into the library.

_Oh, great. Now look what you made me do, Buckethead. Everyone's staring at me. _

_I didn't _make _you do anything. THIS would be making you do something._

"Wait, what are you—" Rogue suddenly sat up straighter, and picked her pencil back up. Magneto had taken control of her body. He looked over the paper for the question they had been debating, and wrote down 'there is no answer' in his clear, scrolling script. He the relinquished control of her motor functions.

"Bastard! What the hell was that! Do ya WANT meh ta slam a freakin' wall up on ya? Ah don't care if Ah get the mother a' all headaches, Ah swear Ah will do it!" she screeched aloud, her accent growing thicker in her rage.

If there was anyone who hadn't been staring a moment ago, they were now. This just made her angrier, and she slammed the threatened mental wall up, blocking sight, sound, and awareness from Magneto. A tear ran down her cheek as she did so. The wall may take away Magneto's senses and equilibrium, but it physically hurt Marie. It felt as if someone had driven a power drill through each temple.

She stood up quickly, knocking her chair over. She left her study materials on the library table and ran out of the room.

XXXXXXXXXX

AN/ Oh, my gosh you guys. I was checking my email at a friend's house the day after I posted chapter four. Five reviews overnight! You guys rock! I totally made a ~squee!~ noise. My friend was all "what? What's got you so excited? You only squeal like that when you see a Hugh Jackman movie coming on TV" and I'm like "NOTHING." And she's all "let me read the goddamn email, roro!" and I'm like HELL NO. So long story short, I almost broke her computer. That's what I get for respecting other people's sensibilites. I'm thinking I need some non-vanilla friends.

Short chapter, I know. But there's more coming!

—Z


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Scott walked into his Maths class after the professor had dismissed him and Logan.

"Hey, hank. Thanks for covering for me," he greeted the blue mutant. Hank smiled at him.

"It wasn't any problem, my boy. Your students, in this period especially, are quite… Interesting."

_Lemme think… Sixth period, last period… The interesting students in this class include, but are not limited to: _He looked out over the class. _Jubilation, Bobby, Rogue, Jones who is an advanced student, and…_

_Tabitha._

_Oh god, how could I have done that to hank?_

"Anyway," Hank broke Scott's semi-horrified reverie. "I have other work to attend to, if you are able to take the class now."

"Yeah, of course."

Scott watched as Hank walked out. He slowly turned to the class.

"What did you do to him?"

"Nothing at all, Mr. Summers," about half the class responded. The rest just snickered. Scott leaned against the wall, seeing as he didn't think it would be wise to flop down into his desk chair.

"Come on, you guys. You really shouldn't take advantage of Hank—er, Mr. McCoy. He's too nice."

"We didn't take advantage of him, Mr. Summers," Tabitha informed him.

"Oh, didn't you?" Scott asked sarcastically.

"No. We pressed him for embarrassing stories about you. He has known you for quite a while, Mr. Summers." Jubilee had a positively evil look on her face. "And you're right. He really is too nice."

"Why is that?" Scott asked guardedly.

"He truthfully answered every one of their questions," Rogue broke in. She grinned, which didn't happen to be something she did much of in public anymore. "Was he being _serious_ when he said that your voice didn't change until you were almost seventeen, Scotty?"

Scott flushed. "N-no. Of course not!"

"You are a terrible liar, Scott," Jubilee informed him with delight.

"That's Mr. Summers, Jubilation." His manner turned gruff in an instant. He attempted a subject change. "Did you go over the lesson at all?"

"No. Did you seriously wear pink all of your junior year?" asked a random student in the back.

"I couldn't tell that it wasn't white! And you all need to get your books out—NOW."

The students all groaned as they realized Cyclops was back.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Looogaan," Ororo said in a sing-song voice. "We haven't spent hardly any alone time together lately."

He grinned up at her and gladly let her climb into his lap. "How you doin, darlin?"

"Oh, wonderful. My history class is having a lot of fun with the artsy assignment I gave them for the Egypt unit."

Logan pulled her closer and breathed in her rain-and-earth scent. He loved this woman, loved the way she loved life. Loved her spirit.

"And how are you, love?" she asked, snuggling into his chest. She reached up and stroked the back of his neck until she felt him relax completely.

"Good. Concerned," he admitted. He could practically feel the curiosity radiating from her fingertips at his neck.

"I think Scott is a lot more unhappy than he's lettin on."

"Oh?" she prompted.

"Yeah. If it was so easy for him to fall apart just because you were humming a merry tune, then imagine what actually sleeping in that room must have done to him for those months." Logan sighed and buried his face in her shoulder.

"You really care about him, don't you?" she asked softly.

"Yeah, Ro. And he's pretty bad off. When I was gettin clothes for him this morning, I was in there. Her stuff was everywhere, her influence on the room so complete. Her perfume had been sprayed recently, for god's sake. He doesn't even realize what he's been doing to himself to keep the place like that and still go in there all the time."

"But he's not now?"

"No. He's been sleepin in my room for the past couple of nights."

"So, I suppose Scott is your newest kid?" Storm was amused to no end to see the confusion on his face. "Oh, don't play dumb, Logan. You and I both know that under all that gruff demeanor and growling you're a big softy."

He demonstrated said growling abilities then. "I am not a 'softy,' woman."

"Oh, yes you are. You have the biggest 'protect and nurture' gene I've seen since the Professor."

"I do not!"

"Oh, hush. I won't tell anybody."

"You better not, little girl."

She laughed lightly. "Is that a threat, Logan?"

"Is what a threat?"

She smacked his arm lightly. "You aren't stupid, Logan. So don't play stupid."

"Huuurgh, wuh yu meen I naw stuppid?"

"For the love of the goddess, Logan!" she fell into a fit of laughter. "You do that far too well for your own good."

He grinned and kissed her, long and deep. He loved making his woman laugh. Their kiss had become rather heated, and neither of them heard when the Professor wheeled into the room.

Imagine the man's surprise to walk into the rec. room and find two of his friends/employees eating face on the couch, Storm straddling Logan and Logan's hands planted firmly on her ass.

He cleared his throat from the doorway, startling the two enough that they fell off the couch into a heap on the floor.

"This is a common room, you two. I would suggest you stop doing that if you expect the students not to find out that you're involved."

Storm stood up and smoothed her clothing out. Logan just smirked from the floor.

"Love the view, babe. Aren't those the ones I got you?"

She flushed bright red when she remembered she was wearing a skirt.

"Goddess, Logan! You're terrible!"

He smiled widely at her remark. "Always, darlin. It's why you love me."

She grimaced. "Get up."

"I think I'm good here."

"Lecher."

AN/ Ah, Logan. You are finally exhibiting some of that oversexed quality we know and love you for.

I felt like writing some fluff. And humor. I've been reading some Harry Potter fic. It's rather angsty. Seriously, I haven't cried that much in one night for a long time. And you know what? As it would figure, there is actually a lot of HP spankfic. I'm just not sure if that's because there is a larger percentage of kinky people in that fandom than usual, or if it's just because it has such a HUGE fanbase that it merits kinks of all kinds. Meh.

Review? Please? *puppy dog eyes*

—Z


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Scott flopped onto his new bed, in his new room. After dinner, Logan had brought him upstairs to move all his things into a room in a completely separate hallway than the room he had shared with Jean.

Logan had strictly instructed he keep only a few things that were Jean's. The rest had gone into storage. Scott supposed it was for the best. He hadn't realized just how heart-grippingly painful living in Jean's room had bee until he had gone without being in there for a few days.

This room was a blank slate for him. Blank walls, plain white sheets and bedspread. It was also half the size of his last residence. Half the size for half the occupants.

_I miss you, Jean. I love you…_ were the man's last thoughts before falling asleep on top of the covers.

XXXXXXXXXX

"_Hello, I'm Jean Grey. Professor Xavier says I'll be staying here from now on," the beautiful red-haired girl introduced herself. _

_Scott's throat went dry and he fell silent for a moment._

"_Hellooo…?" the girl, Jean, said with an amused smile._

"_I-I-um… Scott," he stuttered. He blushed and held out his hand. "Scott Summers, Cyclops."_

"_Well, it's nice to meet you, Scott Summers, Cyclops." She broke out into a huge grin. "Show me around? Please?" _

"_Y-yes, of course. Where are my manners?" he smiled bashfully. "Let's go see the gardens first, before it gets too dark."_

_That day, Scott and Jean walked all over the expansive grounds of the mansion, talking and getting to know one another._

"_Scott? Why are you acting so nervous? You haven't stammered this much since the first time you saw me." Jean threw her boyfriend a warm smile from across the candle-lit table. "It's just a date, Scott. We've gone on a lot of them, you know."_

"_Um, yeah, I know… But this one's different," he told her. Pulling a small velvet box from his coat pocket, he got down on one knee. The entire restaurant stilled and silenced, watching the handsome young man about to propose. Jean smiled at him, partly from joy that he was proposing, partly because she thought he was adorable when he was a nervous wreck. _

"_Jean, I love you, I need you in my life, forever. So, if you'll have me… Marry me?" _

"_Oh, Scott, of course I will!" Scott put the ring on her finger with shaking hands, and as soon as it was on, Jean jumped out of her seat to kiss him where he kneeled._

_The restaurant went up in cheers, and a waiter brought out a bottle of champagne, on the house._

"Oh, god… Jean," Scott sobbed, shooting up from his bed. He felt alone and abandoned and he just wanted his wife. Those dreams were good dreams… The best times in his life. Happy memories turned into nightmares. Scott curled in on himself, wrapping his arms around his torso in a self hug. He felt lost. No, no… Not lost. Ororo had said he couldn't be lost, because he had so many people to keep him tied to reality.

Years and years ago, when the professor had brought him into the mansion as a malnourished twelve-year-old boy, he would have found solace in only his thought of his parents. Then he had grown to trust the Professor, and was comforted by the old man's presence instead.

Remembering this, Scott grabbed a blanket and a pillow and did something he hadn't done in fifteen years—tiptoed to the Professor's room. Carefully, so as not to wake the man, he spread out his blanket right next to the bed, on the floor. He lay down and fell quickly into a dreamless sleep, feeling infinitely better with the comfort of the professor sleeping so close.

XXXXXXXXXX

Charles Xavier awoke the next morning to a sight that both warmed his heart and worried him. Scott hadn't slept in his room for man years, when he was still an abandoned and frightened child, plagued with nightmares of the orphanage, street life, and the night his parents and brother met their untimely demise. It had taken him two years of therapy and stable life at Xavier's to get him to a point where he could sleep peacefully the whole night.

Scott was calmly and deeply sleeping, flailed out over the blanket he had spread out on the floor, pillow clutched in his left arm. The Professor reached an arm down and rubbed Scott's shoulder.

"Scott… Wake up, Scott."

Scott reached up to make sure his glasses were on his face, and blinked his eyes open.

"Good morning, Professor."

"Good morning," the man smiled. His face grew concerned. "Are you alright, Scott?"

"Uh, yeah… Just fine, Professor." Scott could tell that the Professor was worried, but the man didn't press for information.

"Um… I should probably get some grading done before classes start." Scott started to get up.

"I'll see you at breakfast, Scott."

He nodded and disappeared out the Professor's door.

AN/ To my anonymous reviewer Diane: Thank you! My first official non-vanilla e-friend! My only regret is that you don't have an account, thus my only reply being something short at the bottom of the chapter.

Please review! Pleeeease. I love reviews and they make me write faster. Thanks especially to ficwrierjet, who leaves fast and wonderfully long reviews. :) Thanks also to Rallyx. I love love love writing it.

—Z


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

AN/ Oh my god. SO MANY TYPOS. I apologize for last chapter and promise that I will proof-read this one. Jesus. It wasn't even a thousand words and there were _so many_. Ick. Anyway, on with the chapter:

"Scott, come on." Logan popped his head into Scott's classroom on one of Scott's free periods. "I need another guy to show the students a new escape technique."

"Just use one of the students in the class. I'm busy."

"You're _grading_."

"Yes, I am."

"Scott. Now."

"Why?"

"The only student that knows this hold is Rogue, and she was in my defense class last period."

"Fine." Scott straightened up his papers and grumbled under his breath, "Let's do all the things that _you_ wanna do."

Logan narrowed his eyes. "Care to repeat that?"

"No," Scott sighed.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Now, if my assistant would kindly put his foot there, other leg… There…" Logan said when they got back to the Danger Room. "I'll instruct him, and the rest of you guys how to get out of this complex hold."

"Wait, you mean _that_ hold? Hell no, Logan! The last time someone put me in that one, Hank had to pop my arm back into my socket."

Logan let out a long-suffering sigh. "Yes, Scott, because Sabertooth was the one to do it. I'm not _really_ trying to hurt you.

"Fine, then. Why don't _I_ do the hold and _you_ can get out of it?"

Logan stepped closer to Scott and whispered in his ear. "Because when I tell you to do something, you _do_ it."

Scott scowled, but let Logan perform the hold and get on with his class.

XXXXXXXXXX

Just before dinner, Logan pulled Scott aside in a hallway.

"Is there anything you need to tell me?" he growled.

"No, why?" Scott looked at him as if he had twelve heads.

"I was just wondering if there was any _reason_ you've been acting like a brat all day. Talking back, undermining my authority with my students, and what the hell was that supposed to be at lunch?"

Scott scowled. "Number one, I'm an adult! I can _say_ whatever the fuck I want!" that earned him a growl from Logan. "Two: I hate that hold. A lot! I hate it with a passion and if there was a stronger word than 'hate' to describe it, I would use it! And three, the argument at lunch was nothing, so why are your panties in such a twist, asshole?" By the time Scott was done venting his frustration at Logan, Logan was visibly struggling not to grab him by the scruff of the neck and spank him right in the hallway.

Thankfully, Logan took a few deep breaths and calmed down. When he was able to speak again, he did so through clenched teeth and an icy glare.

"You know what, Scott? I'm tired of this attitude you've got. So you're grounded to your room this whole weekend," he was almost interrupted by Scott, who had a look of indignation plastered on his face and mouth open to retort. "Ah, ah ah. I would think very carefully about what you're going to day to me. I am this close—" Logan held up a measure of a millimeter between two fingers. "To bending you over my knee."

Scott felt his stomach sink down to his feet and a lump rise in his throat. He had the experience to know that this threat was not an empty one.

"So, it's gonna go down like this, Scotty. We're gonna go eat dinner. As soon as you're finished eating, you're going to go up to your room and plant your butt on your bed. You will not move from that bed until I come get you for breakfast tomorrow morning." He looked at Scott expectantly.

Not trusting himself to not dig a deeper hole, he nodded.

"Glad we understand each other. Now get in there."

Scott ducked his head as he walked into the dining hall.

Logan let out a slow breath through clenched teeth.

_I swear, this kid will be the death of me._

XXXXXXXXXX

_Fuck you, Logan._

_Fuck you, Logan._

_Fuck you, Logan!_

…

_I'm so __**bored**__._

…

_Fuck you, Logan._

Scott was seething on his bed after dinner. When he was moving into his new room, he hadn't thought to get any books for the shelf next to the bed. No books plus grounded to room equals bored as hell.

_Who the fuck does he think he is, anyway, getting off on grounding me._ _Grounding me!_ _I'm not some misbehaved child!_

Scott though for a moment and let out a long, put-upon sigh.

_No, I'm not a misbehaved child. I'm a misbehaved adult._

_Lord._

Eventually, Scott fell into a dreamless sleep.

XXXXXXXXXX

The next morning, Scott was pushing piles of scrambled eggs around on his plate, prolonging eating to avoid going back up to his room. This was going to be a very long Saturday. He perked right up, though, when he heard the professor say the magic words. All the teachers, (plus Rogue) were at the usual table.

"I have a small mission," Xavier said. Scott sat up straighter and looked at him expectantly. "Just a simple pickup. Whichever of my two X-Men that wishes may go. You will need to explain mutants to a fourteen-year-old girl who has just recently developed her powers, and to her parents. Then make the offer to come stay here at the school."

There were nods all around the table.

_Looks like I'm not going to be as bored as I thought. _

Logan eyed Scott's hopeful face and decided to quickly squash thought of escaping his punishment.

"Me and Storm will go, Professor."

"Wait, Logan," Scott started to protest.

"You know what I told you, boy," Logan growled.

"But this is my job! And besides, you just volunteered Storm without even asking her if—"

"I don't mind. I love meeting new students," Ororo interrupted.

Even with the glasses on, she could tell that the look Scott was giving her was along the lines of '_so_ not helping.'

"Why don't you finish that grading?" Logan suggested to Scott, trying to steer him away from the current topic.

Scott glared daggers at him behind his shades. "Oh, _now_ you want me to grade. I could have been grading when you insisted I help with that ridiculous hold."

"Watch your mouth, boy," Logan growled through (yet again) clenched teeth.

"You know what? I can't, Logan. Because it's under my nose!" he snapped.

Rogue could tell that Scott was in very dangerous territory with the feral mutant, having been there herself. So she stood up and literally dragged Scott out of his chair.

"Why don't we get seconds?" she asked through Scott's protesting.

"I was in the middle of a conv—"

"Ya were in the middle of diggin' ya own grave!" she hissed. "Do you seriously think he wouldn't drag you outta here and blister your behind right this minute?"

Scott blushed from his hairline to his neck.

"Ya don't have any sense of self preservation at all, do ya?"

"It's been said," he grumbled.

"What the hell was all that, anyway?"

"Nothing," he insisted.

Rogue rolled her eyes. "Sure it wasn't."

"It was nothing, really!"

"I Don't believe you, Scotty. I know both of you too well," she grinned. _Scott turns the funniest shade of violet when you torment him._

XXXXXXXXXX

AN/ there you are, wonderful readers! New chapter. Review? Please? I don so love them. I love them a lot. I even have a challenge for you: Give me the most absolutely RANDOM word you can think of and I'll incorporate it into the next chapter. :D

Please review. OH ALRIGHT YOU CAUGHT ME OUT. I'M A REVIEW WHORE. PLEEEEASE!

That is all.

—Z


	9. Chapter 9

**AN/ Whenever you see a number after a word/phrase, it's a suggestion. I didn't fit them all in, but I promise I will fit them in next chapter. **

**Chapter 9**

_I don't give a damn what Logan says! I'm going on that mission whether he likes it or not!_

Scott hastily pulled on his X-Men uniform, trying to go as fast as he could so that Logan and Storm wouldn't leave without him. They were leaving in ten minutes, just enough time to get ready…

Scott switched his glasses for his visor as he walked down one of the halls in the lower levels.

_Nobody grounds Cyclops! Hell no!_

Scott was jazzed up and ready to get out of the house. He hadn't been on many missions since Jean's death, and even then, it was just as a body guard for the professor, no active field duty.

But this girl that the professor picked up on was young and easily influenced. That, coupled with the immense power that Cerebro had picked up meant that any number of less than polite people could try to sway her toward their ranks.

The possibility of some real action had Scott grinning from ear to ear with anticipation.

_Maybe I've been hanging out with Logan too much. I never used to be this bloodthirsty._

He entered the jet, seeing Storm at the pilot's seat, about ready to close the hatch. Logan sniffed the air and slumped in his chair.

"I told you to stay in your room, Scott," he grunted without even turning around. "So get back in there."

"No!" Scott stood his ground. "I'm not going back in there and you can't make me." Scott immediately bit down hard on his tongue after the words left his mouth.

_Oh, no. I'm not being childish __**at all.**__ I always say that._

Logan swiveled around in his chair and raised an eyebrow at Scott. "Really?"

"Um… No. You can't." _I can't just go back on my words. Then he'll know that I know I'm being stupid._

_Why __**am**__ I being stupid?_

"I beg to differ. Now get. Off. The jet."

He scowled under his visor. "No."

Logan stood up, trying to intimidate Scott into getting off the plane before he forced him to do something about it.

"If you don't get back to your room right now, I will spank you right here in front of Storm. Then you'll be dragged back to your room. Either way, you're not coming on this mission."

Scott blushed brilliantly when Logan mentioned punishing him, knowing that Storm could hear every word from the pilot seat.

"Fuck you, Logan!" Scott had an odd sense of deja vous. "I'm an adult! With a job! And said job is just exactly this: going on missions to help other mutants." He tried to plead a logical case.

"First off," Loagn said, stepping toward him. "I'm involved with someone, sorry. I'm the faithful type. Second, if you were truly an adult in your mind, you wouldn't have pushed me until I grounded you. And third, There's already two people on this job. You only want to go on this one to see if you can push me and to get out of your room."

"No! That's not why at all!"

"Then why?" Logan asked, stepping within arm's reach of the man.

"I… Um," he stuttered, suddenly nervous.

"Are you going to get off the plane?" he asked in a dangerous voice.

"N-no!" Scared out of his wits, he was still standing his ground. Like a true X-Man.

A truly stupid X-Man.

Logan grabbed his upper arm and half led, half dragged Scott over to the nearest seat in the jet.

"Logan, wait!" Scott pleaded. He really didn't want to be spanked in front of Storm. He felt a cold lump form in his stomach and he went stiff. "Please don't!"

"I gave you plenty of chances to get back to your room," he growled while he sat down. "I didn't want to have to do this. But you had to keep pushing me, eh?"

Scott felt a lump in his throat. Logan didn't sound pleased at all. He didn't know when he started caring about what Logan thought of him, but suddenly, it seemed like the most important thing in the world.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

"I know, Scotty. But I warned you." Logan gave a quick tug to his wrist and Scott was sprawled over his lap. Scott felt a rush of cold air as Logan tugged his pants and boxers down off his butt. He whimpered but didn't say anything.

Logan was proud of Scott for not swearing at him and trying to talk his way out of his punishment. He raised his hand and smacked down on the man's upturned rear, eliciting a yelp. As Logan fond a rhythm, Scott tried to blink back tears. It hurt like hell.

Logan spanked him thoroughly, starting from the top of the curve down to the tops of his thighs. He concentrated especially on the sit spots, stopping there to land smacks over and over on the same spot before going over the rest of his butt again. The whole thing was a brilliant red by the time he was done, and Scott just lay sobbing over his knees. Scott didn't even realize he was done until Logan pulled his boxers back up. He went ahead and let Scott compose himself before standing, pulling him up as well.

"D'you forgive me?" Scott choked out before he could stop himself. His face went even redder than it was already as he awaited Logan's response.

"Of course I do, kid," Logan grunted affectionately. "I promise I will forgive you every time after you've been punished." He pulled Scott toward him and wrapped his arms around his shoulders in a fierce hug.

Scott leaned into him and took as much comfort from the hug as he could. After a moment, he pulled away from Logan reluctantly.

"You two should probably get going now," he said. He turned a bright red color as he remembered where they were, and that they were in front of Storm. He pulled his pants up over his boxers, hissing as they came into contact with his sore bottom.

Storm got up and hugged him too, offering an encouraging smile.

"Do try to stay out of trouble while we're gone, please, dear boy." Scott felt like he as about to die of embarrassment and nodded, turning to get off the jet.

"And you still have to stay in your room," Logan called after him just as the hatch was shutting. He cracked a grin when his enhanced hearing picked up Scott's mutter of "goddamnit!"

Sitting down in the copilot seat, he turned to Storm.

"I'm sorry you had to see that. Well, hear it."

She started the jet and pressed the button to open up the hangar doors under the basketball court. "Quite frankly, dear, I would have been surprised if you _didn't_ spank him."

One of his eyebrows shot up. "Oh? And why is that?"

She glanced over at him with a smile. "Because I know you too well."

He grinned back at her.

XXXXXXXXXX

Just as he had gotten back to his room and was laying (face down) on his bed, his door opened. He jumped a bit and looked up through his foggy shades at Rogue.

"Jesus! You almost gave me a heart attack!" he tried to return his breathing to normal. "You _could_ knock. What if I was naked?"

"Oops." She didn't sound at all sorry or surprised at the notion of catching him naked. "Ah need your help with somethin."

"Oh. What? Are you having trouble in one of your classes?"

Rogue rolled her eyes. "No. Ah have a sixty-year-old pseudo-genius in mah head," she said in a matter of fact tone. "Ah never have trouble with mah schoolwork."

"Could have fooled me."

She gave a fake look of outrage. "Ah'm hurt, Scott! Whyever would ya say such a thing?"

"Maybe because I'm one of the people that grades your report card?"

"Oh. Yeah. Well, anyway, Ah need ya to help me with a prank."

"No."

"Don't be such a wet blanket, Scott."

"I just want to stay in my room for the weekend," he insisted. "I don't feel like doing anything."

She gave him a 'how-stupid-do-you-think-I-am-because-you-are-not-fooling-anybody' look. "Yeeeeah. Ah'll just _bet_ that that's what ya wanna do."

"Really!" he insisted, face heating up.

Rogue gave an unamused look.

"You have a very expressive face, did you know that?" Scott told her.

"COUGHlogan'sbitchCOUGH."

Scott's face burned redder. "Did you seriously just _say_ 'cough?' Because I'm pretty sure you're supposed to actually cough."

"Ya can tell me when ya're grounded, Scott! Don't lie to me!"

"I'm not!"

"Oh, ya aren't? Maybe Ah should just try this out on ya to see if ya are!" she said, picking up Scott's hairbrush.

"Jesus fucking goddamn it, don't! I'm lying, okay? Happy?"

She smiled and tossed the brush aside. "Yes, Ah am."

Jubilee chose that moment to walk in the room holding a poppy**1 **seed bagel.

"Holy Jumanji,"**2 **she declared as she sat down in Scott's desk chair. "Did Mr. Summers seriously just curse?"

"Yes, but don't start cursing. It's bad." Scott sighed.

"Start?" Jubilee asked through a bite of the bread. "When did I stop?"

Scott flopped his head down on his crossed arms. "I swear, you two are the devil's minions."**3**

Rogue looked outraged. "Hey! _She's_ the minion. Ah'm the devil."

"Figures," Scott snorted.

"So, are ya gonna help meh and Jubes with this prank?"

"No!"

Jubilee glared at Rogue. "I thought you said he'd go for it! Now what are we supposed to do?"

Rogue stared at him. Scott thought pranking someone sounded like a lot of fun, actually. But his still throbbing behind reminded him loudly of his room restriction.

"I'll help you on Monday."

Rogue rolled her eyes. "Fahne. Monday. And if you chicken out on us Ah'm going to steal Logan's beer and frame you."

Scott buried his head in his arms again so that they wouldn't see his blush at the mention of stealing Logan's beer. How many nights ago had that been, anyway?

"Okay. Monday. Now go away."

"Aww, Scotty, don't ya want company?" Rogue teased. He glared at her from behind his shades. She seemed to get the picture, and grabbed Jubilee's arm.

"C'mon, Jubes. The Packers**4** are playin' the Saints. I wanna see the game."

"Aw, Roguey! Football? Again?"

XXXXXXXXXX

AN/ Sorry for the wait, you guys! I hope I haven't lost any of you. |:/ I've been… uh… busy all week.

**PLEASE**

Throwing a shame party with crisps and punch. (at least, I think it was punch.)

**PLEASE**

But here is the next chapter! :D have a lovely day, all of you!

**REVEIEW**


	10. Chapter 10

Logan and Storm had gotten in a few hours later with a bedraggled teenage girl in tow. Logan had made his way up to Scott's room. When he didn't get an answer to his light knocks, he opened up the door to find Scott fast asleep and facedown in his student's ungraded papers.

_The boy must have been bored out of his skull to fall asleep at eleven in the morning,_ Logan thought.

He reached down and shook the man's shoulder.

"Hey. Kid. Wake up."

Scott groaned at his loud demands and rolled over. "I dun wanna gerrup," he complained into his pillow. Logan smirked and yanked the pillow out from under his head.

"Tough shit. I got chores for you."

Scott cocked an eyebrow. "What chores? I've done all the ones I was rostered on for this week."

"But you haven't washed all the windows," he grinned. Scott's mouth dropped wide open. Logan could almost see the gears turning in his head.

Scott's mind was working a mile a minute. _How could he expect me to do that! Washing all the windows in the mansion is what we reserve for any students that get suspended. I'm_ not _a student! I'm a grown man and he_ can't _do this to me!_

Logan tossed him a rag and an empty bucket. "You know where the hose is. Do the front windows on the ground level first. I'll check on you in an hour."

Scott couldn't even sputter out one word in his surprise. Washing all the windows! It wasn't that it was such a _horrible_ task, but the implication behind it annoyed Scott to no end.

Regardless, he set the rag and the bucket aside to change into some cutoffs and a t-shirt.

Once he'd made his way to the front door and hooked a left, he stepped over the carefully trimmed hedges bordering the mansion. There was just enough space to stand between the hedge and the building, and he walked to the nearest window.

_Oh, great… Class is in session. Why does Warren hold his Saturday detentions in the front levels?_

Sighing heavily, Scott got the rag out of his back pocket and set down the bucket that he had filled before coming outside. He started to wash the window, and tried to avoid the vaguely interested stares from the delinquents inside the classroom. He tried even harder to ignore Warren's questioning gaze.

The sun got a bit lower in the sky as he made his way about the front of the institute. He was about to dump the dirty water out of his bucket and refill it yet again, when Logan stopped him.

"Hey, Cyke. Take a break, come eat lunch." Scott sighed in relief at the words and dropped the rag into the bucket with a splash. His tired shoulders sagged as he walked beside Logan toward the front door.

Wolverine smirked but said nothing.

XXXXXXXXXX

"You SLUT!" shouted Rogue.

"BITCH!" Kitty replied.

"PORN STAR!"

Kitty looked shocked for a moment. "Uh… Yeah? Uh… Well, you must have been born on a highway, because that's where most accidents happen!"

Rogue rolled her eyes. "Well, your birth certificate is a written apology from the condom factory!"

"Shut up!" Kitty gasped. "You'll never be the man your mother is!"

Rogue raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Your face looks like it caught on fire and somebody tried to put it out with a fork."

"DUMBASS!" Kitty shouted, tears gathering in her eyes.

"CUNT!" Even Rogues eyes widened a bit at hearing THAT one slip from her mouth.

"BITCH!"

"You already said that, moron! You're so stupid, it takes you two hours to watch 'Sixty Minutes!'"

"Did your parents ever ask you to run away from home as a child?"

"You know," Rogue started pleasantly. "I love what you've done with your hair. How did you get it to come out of one nostril like that?"

Kitty got a pained look on her face, and her hands flew up to cover her face. "You… You…"

Rogue scoffed. "Real witty comeback there, Kit."

"You're just bitter because nobody will ever want some cold BITCH that they can't TOUCH!" Kitty screamed around her hands. "Not that anyone would ever WANT to touch you! God, have you ever looked in the mirror? You're a freak among freaks!"

Rogue froze for a moment, feeling the rage overtake her body. Her eyes gleamed with evil intent. Kitty gulped and her eyes flew wide open.

"Oh, shit… Rogue, I didn't _mean_ that!" Kitty whimpered. It fell on deaf ears, though, as rogue lunged toward the petite girl.

She knocked Kitty to the ground and straddled her. Kitty, in her fright, completely forgot that she could easily get herself out of this situation. Her mind went utterly blank when something hard and painful cracked against her jaw. Rogue swung her arm back again and brought it forward to the other side of Kitty's face, satisfied in the lovely slamming sound it made.

"Get off me, you soul-sucker!" Kitty gasped. This, of course, only served to make rogue angrier.

Not bothering to bring her other hand up from where it had landed at Kitty's throat, she yanked her other glove off with her teeth. Kitty's eyes widened to the size of apples when she saw this latest impending doom and got her wits back about her. She phased upward and through Rogue, standing shakily and looking down at the other girl's back.

Rogue sprung up from the ground, chasing toward Kitty. Logan, who had heard the commotion as he and Scott neared the kitchen, burst into the room then.

"Just what the hell is goin' on in here?" he snarled.

Kitty ran over to him and hid behind him. Rogue was so pissed off, she didn't even notice him until she had almost run into him.

Logan growled. Looks like he'd be skipping group lunch today.

He grabbed Rogue's arm to make sure she wouldn't attack the Pryde girl.

"Pryde," he grunted.

"Yes?" she squeaked from behind him.

"Go give your side of the story to Storm."

"Yes sir," she replied before hurrying out the door. She bumped into Scott on her way to the mess hall, who was looking a bit confused as to why Logan had gone past the door to the dining room.

"Um, Professor Summers?" she got his attention. "You're probably going to want to leave them alone for a bit."

He quirked an eyebrow, but trusted her word and walked with her to the dining room.

XXXXXXXXXX

AN/ Hey guys, really really sorry I left you hangin' for so long. We had family over for a few weeks, and they are the nosy type. Worse, they are also the nocturnal type and follow almost the exact same sleep schedule as me.

Not that this chapter had anything that would freak them out, (I decided right where I was was a good place to stop… So, sorry about the short chapter, too.) I just hate it when people look over my shoulder while I write.

So yeah. Here it is! And I would probably write a lot faster if I had some reviews pushing me on…

PLEASE PLEASE READ THE ROMY PROMPT IN MY PROFILE PLZ KTHNX BAI

-Z


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

After Kitty was out of the room, Logan shut the door to the rec. room behind her. He turned back to Rogue.

"What the fuck was all that about?"

"She's a cheating, lying, backstabbing whore!" Rogue screeched. Logan simply raised an eyebrow. Rogue huffed a breath out.

"We were sharin' secrets. Y'know, girl stuff."

Logan nodded.

"When it was her turn again, she told meh that when Ah was still datin' Bobby, she was screwing him on the side! And that was why he broke it off with meh!"

Rogue simply couldn't contain her anger and grabbed a book that was lying around. She threw it against a wall.

"Marie!" Logan snapped. She looked up at him. "You're throwin' a tantrum like a four-year-old!" he growled. "I understand that yer pissed off. Ya got every right to be. But screamin' and throwin' shit and slugging Pryde isn't how ya should be dealin' with this!"

"Ah always throw stuff when Ah'm mad Logan! And if you found out your best friend had been fucking your girlfriend, Ah'm pretty damn sure you'd clock 'im one!" she yelled.

"Stop. Yelling." His voice was dangerously quiet. "And this is a case of 'do as I say, not as I do."

This only served to make Rogue angrier.

"Don't ya have _any_ damn sympathy for meh! Ah just found out that one a' mah best friends and roommates was screwin' mah boyfriend!"

"Your _ex_ boyfriend. And of course I'm sympathetic. I don't like seein' ya hurtin', Marie. But you need to calm down."

"Fuck that!" she shouted. She grabbed a vase off a table. Logan grabbed the arm that was holding the vase.

"If you throw his vase, you will be in more trouble than you can handle, little girl," he growled. She ignored him, and took hold of the vase with the had he hadn't captured. She threw it, and it smashed against the wall, shattering into a thousand different little pieces.

The loud sound and the adrenaline of destruction, however small, served to calm her down a bit. That was, until she saw the expression on Logan's face.

"Oh, shit…" she muttered.

XXXXXXXXXX

"I want him back," the man snarled to the tall figure standing behind him. "He's too content. Too happy. He needs to remember who he serves."

"Yes, master." The tall man agreed. Had the other man turned around, he would have been pleased to note he evil, bloodthirsty glint in his pet's eye.

"I want you to get James. Bring him here. Then I want you to use him to lure his compatriots here, as well."

"Yes, master."

"That's a good pet," he purred. "Go fetch me Logan, Sabertooth. And don't be gentle about it."

Sabertooth grinned menacingly, and without another word, he was gone.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Kitty, you almost look sick. Are you alright?" Storm asked the girl at lunch.

"Um… Uh, yeah. Fine. Right as rain," Kitty squeaked. She shifted on her chair.

"Is there something bothering you, then?" Ororo pressed.

Kitty sighed. There was no getting around it.

"Mr. Logan wanted me to, uh, talk to you."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Because me and Rogue were fighting." It was then that kitty actually looked up at Storm, giving the woman an eyeful of the lovely purple bruise Rogue had given her.

"By the goddess!" Storm reached out and tilted Kitty's head up a bit to inspect the bruise. "Why in the world would she do this to you? I've never known Rogue to just hit someone unprovoked."

"See, that's kinda the issue. I may have confessed to having a thing on the side with Bobby when Rogue was still dating him. And I might've also confessed that I was the reason he broke up with her.

"Oh, Kitty." Storm shook her head at the girl. "How could you do that to her?"

"Well it's not my fault she came here and stole my thunder!" Kitty complained. "I've liked Bobby since my first day here! And the day before I was planning on asking him out, she shows up and all the guys instantly lust after her! She's the forbidden fruit, the one they can't touch but want to so badly!" she ranted.

"And that's still how it is! God, she's so naïve, she doesn't even realize that Bobby was just walking around with her on his arm to proclaim that he tamed the untamable! He never really liked her!"

"Well, whether that's true or not, do you really think it was right to tempt Bobby into cheating on her? Are you proud of that?"

Kitty felt like a brick of guilt had hit her in the face. She decided to ignore it.

"Like he needed tempting!"

Storm shook her head. "I'm very disappointed in you, Kitty."

She walked away from Kitty to talk to some other students, letting her stew in her own guilt.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Logan, really, Ah couldn't help myself!" she insisted. "Please, don't spank meh, Ah was too angry to know what Ah was doing!

"I said right in your face that you would be knee-deep in shit if you threw the vase, and you threw it anyway. Do you really think you don't deserve it?"

She didn't answer him, just tried to tug her arm out of his grasp. He kept a firm hold on her, and walked steadily toward the room she shared with Kitty and Jubilee.

He tugged her inside and sat on her bed, pulling her over his knees.

He yanked her jeans down and pulled down her panties, then looked around the room for a moment. He needed something to use on her butt. He wasn't about to spank anyone without being able to see what he was doing, he was a powerful man.

This obviously presented him with a dilemma in Rogue's case.

He saw a green ruler lying with Rogue's school things, one of those plastic flexible ones. He grabbed it, and wasted no time in smacking it down onto her vulnerable bottom.

Rogue yelped when the first smack of the ruler fell. _Why the fuck didn't I buy one of those lightweight plastic ones? This one's so heavy! OW!_ She thought.

Logan was smacking it down, lying pinkinsh stripes over her bottom that burned like the fires of hell.

"Please, Logan! Please stop!" she begged after he'd covered her butt twice evenly with strikes of the ruler. "Ah promise Ah won't ever throw stuff when Ah'm angry again!"

"That's what you said last time I punished you for the same damn thing," he replied, and kept spanking her very sore behind.

"Ah'm sorry!" she shouted. "Just stop, please!"

She continued on yelling and begging, and swore at him a few times, too. To which Logan promptly responded with smacks to her thighs.

Needless to say, Rogue is very vocal during a spanking.

When her whole bottom as well as the tops of her thighs was a uniform red color, and she had stopped yelling quite as much, Logan knew he was finished. He tossed the ruler back onto her desk and gathered her limp form to his chest.

"Marie."

"Y-yeah?" she sniffled, wiping her tears away with the corner of her glove.

"Are you gonna be civil now?"

"Uh-huh," she nodded.

He reached down and pulled her panties up carefully.

"Ah'm sorry, Logan, Ah was just so mad." She buried her face into his chest. "Ah just can't believe it. She's supposed to be one a' mah best friends!"

"I'm sorry it worked out like that for ya, kiddo. Betrayal ain't somethin' that's easy to forget."

She just cried.

XXXXXXXXXX

Logan and Rogue got their food and joined the teacher's table about halfway through lunch, after Rogue had washed her face and calmed down a bit. If anyone noticed her wince when she sat down, they didn't say anything.

"Rogue, Logan." The professor greeted with a smile. "Thank you for joining us. I was worried I might not see either of you until dinner."

"We needed to work out some issues. Everything's fine now," Logan said before reaching for the salt.

_Yeah, fine… Sure it is. I hope that I can get the Professor to put that bitch in a different room._

Rogue smiled and didn't let anyone know what was on her mind

The conversation was pleasant as always, but Rogue wasn't really hearing any of it. She was deeply upset by the revelations of the morning. Everyone always turned on her. First her parents, then her best friend, then her boyfriend…

_I wonder who's next,_ she though morbidly.

Rogue decided to excuse herself from lunch early.

XXXXXXXXXX

AN/ Hi, guys! Just a few requests.

1: PLEASE CHECK OUT MY ROMY CHALLENGE. It's posted in my profile. PLEASE I BEG YOU. (For my birthday, maybe, Green? A little Romy oneshot for this mad American?)

2: If you like this fic, and like MyGreenTrenchCoat's fic 'The Hard Way,' and like x-men evolution, please join the X-Men Evolution role play forum that Green and I started up! (Okay, okay, she founded it. But I'm a global admin and I was her very first member so I'm gonna say I co-founded it. *IS SHOT*)

You can find it here at **http:/ www. x-men-evolution-rp. proboards. com** just take out the spaces.

Don't forget to review! =)


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Scott climbed the stairs back to his room as slowly as possible. His joints ached. His muscles ached. His _hair_ ached.

After lunch he had washed the windows on the upper level of the front of the mansion.

_I swear I will never touch another cleaning rag ever again,_ he though to himself.

Just when he was finishing up the last window, Logan came out and told him ten minutes to dinner. So he swiped the last streak of soapy water over the glass and climbed down the ladder, walking to his room.

Just as he slumped to his bed, all changed into sweats and a tee shirt, Logan knocked and came in.

"Get up and come eat."

"I can't. You'll have to carry me if you want to see me at that table."

"Sure."

Logan walked to the bed and slung Scott over his shoulder, walking out of the room and kicking the door closed.

"What the hell! I was _joking_, you senile old man! Put me down!"

Logan chuckled and set him on his feet. "Old man? Hell yes. Senile? Never."

"Coulda fooled me," Scott groused as he walked in front of Logan.

When they got to the dining room, they sat at the usual teacher's table (plus Rogue) after they got their food.

"Scott? Are you alright?" Storm asked. "You look half dead."

"Washing windows will do that to you," he mumbled and slumped down in his seat. He practically fell asleep in his food more than once. Logan was almost worried.

"Go to bed, Scotty," he said about halfway through dinner.

"Don't order me around," he protested blearily. "I'm just fine where I am."

Logan rolled his eyes. "You've got mashed potatoes all over your face from where you drooped into your plate. Go to bed."

Scott glared at Logan but got up and left the room without further argument. It really was an adorable sight, the oh-so-fearless leader of the X-Men stomping off to bed with a petulant glare and a dirty face.

"That boy is going to be the death of me," Logan groused.

Storm snickered and looked at him with a twinkle in her eye. "Not if I am first," she said before flicking some mashed potatoes off her spoon. They landed directly on his cheek. Hank stared at Storm with awe. Had she actually just dared to sling food at Wolverine?

Yes. Yes she did.

Logan got a feral smile on his face. He tore off a piece of his roll and flicked it at her. It landed in her hair.

She narrowed her eyes at him.

"This means war," she said before jumping out of her seat. She ran to the other side of the table. As he was standing up, too, she grabbed his plate and scooped the corn off it, smashing it into his chest.

"This is my favorite shirt," he protested.

"Like you don't have other flannel shirts," she rolled her eyes. He shoved a piece of roast down her shirt. She shrieked a bit.

By now the entire room was watching in awe as the two took turns smashing food on each other. When the plate was empty, Storm shot around the other side of the table again.

Logan ran around it to try and catch her, but she kept the table between them.

"Are they… Playing?" Rogue asked incredulously.

"I believe so…" hank answered.

Storm finally darted around the table and over to a different one. Logan chased after her, grinning all the while.

He finally caught up to her and threw her over his shoulder. She squealed as he carried her out of the dining room. He'd decided that they were going to take a shower together.

"What a way to break the news," Rogue muttered, wide-eyed.

XXXXXXXXXX

Sabretooth prowled through the streets of downtown New York. He'd been walking for days. His master hadn't given him any money for a cab or a bus and he'd ended up making shitty time from Quebec to New York. His beard was streaked and dirty, his clothes and boots muddy. He was shivering violently due to his wet clothes. He swore and roared in outrage when the sole of his boot busted out. He'd had them for years and years, but it still sucked shit that they had to do this _now._

XXXXXXXXXX

Scott woke up late on Sunday. He glanced over to his clock to see it was about noon.

"Christ on a bike," he grumbled.

"I don't think Jesus ever rode a bike," Logan commented. Scott was startled so bad, he fell off the bed.

"You creep! Were you watching me sleep?" he asked from the floor.

"No. I was waiting for you to wake up. There's a difference."

Scott shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. "Did you need something…?"

"Yep. I need you to take this," Logan said, handing him a slip of paper.

"Vacuum, mop, sweep, fold laundry… Logan! Can't I just stay in my room like normal people do when they're grounded?" he spat the last word out.

"Nope. Because you ain't 'normal people'. You're a teacher at a school. Who knows, maybe if ya set a good example for the kids, we won't have to harp on 'em so much to get them to do their chores."

Scott narrowed his eyes behind his glasses. "I hate this and I hate you," he mumbled.

"Then you can hate me while you clean the mansion," Logan said in a far too cheery voice. He knew Scott didn't hate him. He was just pouting because of the work. "When you're done with that list, consider yourself ungrounded."

**AN/ Uh... Hi, guys! Yes, I know this is a damned short chapter and that it's been too long since I updated and I'm sorry. I've had this chapter 'finished' for about a week now and every time I read over it I felt like there should have been more there but every train of thought I went off on was a chapter in itself, so there you are. Short overdue chapter. You may throw tomatoes now. :P **

**Remember to review! Please? *puppy dog eyes***


	13. Author's Note

Yeah, I know we're not supposed to use individual chapters as ANs, that's in the FFN rules somewhere or other. But I just wanted to pop in and say that my writing muse is back for this fic! I have about eleven ideas/chapter outlines. Well, I have about three chapter outlines and then a bunch of base ideas for chapters, but they're not fleshed out yet. :) I'm starting to write the real chapter thirteen right now. Also, since this is going to be a non chapter and any chapters are going to be labeled wrongly, I'm going to start adding chapter titles. Next chap, hopefully posted tomorrow or the next day, will be posted within the next two days if I stay to schedule. (Why I'm picking this project back up when I just started a huge one, I have no idea. *rolls eyes at self* )

Anyway. All I'm saying is I'M BACK! And yes that's a threat!

Zandra


	14. Twinkies

On Monday, Scott woke up sore all over, but feeling liberated. He was no longer grounded, and he thought he might go out and do something today.

After showering and shaving (one thing he desperately needed as of late), he made his way down to the dining hall before Logan could even come and get him. A bit later Logan did indeed appear, ushering Storm in and sitting next to Scott, with her on his other side.

"You're up early. I'm surprised you didn't try to sleep in until twelve with how tired you must be from all the chores yesterday," Logan snorted.

"Yeah, well. Wanted a head start on the day," he explained as the Professor wheeled up and Rogue came in behind him.

"So, Scott, you gonna help me out with that thing today?" Rogue smirked, glancing over to the buffet table to see if breakfast was being brought out yet.

Scott had to think for a second on that one. Yeah… Rogue and Jubilation had come to his room yesterday to ask for his help with a prank.

"Sure," he said hesitantly, now wondering if it would get him in trouble. "Later today."

Rogue winked at him and ignored the look Logan was giving her. He didn't need to know a thing.

Warren and Beast arrived one after the other to fill the other two spots at the adults table and Ororo glanced over to Scott.

"If you're not too busy after classes today, I think you and I should go into the city, Scott. I feel like Logan's been taking up all your time since you came back to the land of the living."

Scott nodded and smiled, looking forward to his time with the windrider. Logan, on the other hand, started to protest, claiming that he wasn't taking up all of anybody's time. She simply winked at her lover and pecked him on the cheek. "Men are idiots, Rogue, remember that. They don't even know when you're teasing."

The girl giggled and stood to grab herself a plate of food when it had all been brought out. Logan followed her, as did Ororo, who the Professor had cajoled into getting him a plate, too. Everyone else went too, with the exception of Warren, citing 'hangover'.

XXXXXXXXXX

After the most normal breakfast he'd had since Jean's unfortunate end, Scott made his way to his maths class. He hadn't been scolded or glared at by Logan at all during breakfast and that left him in a hell of a good mood, and feeling like more of an adult than he had in days.

"You seem really happy, Professor Summers," said a shy girl with pink hair named Sarah. His first period class was over and he hadn't even given any homework.

"Well, I'd say I'm on my way," he smiled. Scott knew he had a long, long ways to go before he could be considered fully recovered from his wife's death and many of the other problems he'd learned he had taken on, but being on the path at all had made him happy. For the morning, at least.

On his free period, Rogue came to his office with Jubilee, both grinning over their scheme.

"Oh god," he groaned, seeing them coming.

"Scotty, I'm hurt," Rogue tutted teasingly. "You're not a very good partner in crime if you say stuff like that when you see me coming."

"What do you want me to do?" he asked, raising an eyebrow behind his shades.

"Drive me an' Jubes to the store to pick up a few things, and be our lookout when we start using those things," she grinned evilly.

"And if I do this, you'll leave me alone?" he questioned.

Rogue smirked. "Oh, no Scott. Never. You're my partner now, remember?"

She winked and he groaned.

XXXXXXXXXX

After helping Rogue with her prank, (which was rather tame in comparison to the ones Warren and Hank used to play in their teen years) Scott had returned to teaching his classes. With a break in between for lunch, (which Logan had to drag him to) the end of the relatively normal school day came quickly and Ororo was soon at his door.

"Hey, you. Are you ready to come out with me?" she smiled, watching him finish writing notes in a margin of a paper with a red pen. "I think it would do you some good to get some fresh air and see the light of day," she winked.

He set the papers aside and stood from his chair, grabbing his coat. "Yeah, I'm ready," he said, offering his arm. She smiled and took it, allowing him to lead her down the hall and toward the garage.

"These past few days have been a bit hectic, huh?" she smiled sympathetically.

"Yes," he sighed. "Very. Very hectic and not at all fun."

"Not at all?" she smirked. "You can't tell me it wasn't fun ribbing Logan like you have been and being able to do so with little more than a glare from him instead of a death threat."

He smiled slightly. "I suppose that is one perk of being… closer to him," he said, choosing his words carefully.

Ororo genuinely smiled at that as he lead her to his car an opened the door for her. "You're one of his kids now, you know," she said, patting his chest as she slid inside the sporty car. "Like Rogue."

"I think I had that one pretty well figured out," he chuckled mirthlessly, closing her door and walking round to the drivers side. Once on the road, he glanced sideways at her. "You have anywhere in particular in mind?"

"Uptown New York. Just someplace nice and interesting. I'm sure you know somewhere," she smiled.

The conversation died down for the most part until they were out in the city, walking around a nice part of town with lots of shops, boutiques, and cafés.

"Why did you really bring me out here, Ororo?" he asked after a while.

"You know me too well," she smiled. "And I had a few reasons. First, to tell you that I will always, always be here for you, sweetie," she said earnestly, kissing the back of his hand. "Logan and I are on the same wavelength in that respect. Secondly, to ask you how you're doing with this. You've got to be on some kind of overload from everything. So, I want you to just talk and talk until you get as many things off your mind as you can."

Thinking for a moment, Scott decided that sounded like a really good idea.

"I miss Jean," he started quietly. "A lot. It's like I've got this pressure in my chest that won't go away, and it gets worse every time I think of her," he sighed, ignoring the stinging in his eyes at the mention of his deceased lover. "And I hate Logan and I'm thankful to him at the same time," he frowned. "I'm not a kid. I don't like him treating me like a kid and I don't want it. But at the same time, I know I probably never would have gotten my own self out of that slump if he hadn't done anything."

He glanced down at her and she squeezed his hand. "He just cares about you, Scott. I think he saw you hurting so bad and couldn't help but intervene. He's much more of a softy than he lets on," she smiled. "And don't you tell him I told you that or _I_ might get smacked," she winked teasingly.

"I won't," he chuckled. "And I always knew he was a mother hen. I mean, look at him with Rogue. I just… I dunno. I don' know if I want him being that way with me."

"Well, whether you want him or not, you've got him," Ororo chuckled. "Logan is one of the most stubborn men I have ever met. No matter how much you try to make him, he's not about to give up on you. Which may or may not spell trouble for your backside."

Scott flushed bright scarlet, shaking his head. "Don't, Storm… Just don't."

She simply smiled and kissed his cheek.

"I, for one, am happy Logan found you."

"Found me?" Scott raised an eyebrow.

She nodded. "The person you were becoming, Scott, wasn't _you_. It wasn't the man that the professor practically raised as his own son. You weren't the man I knew. You weren't the man that Jean loved. That man had retreated to the back of your mind and refused to come out even to allow you to take care of your own base needs, like eating and shaving. It was like we lost you, too, after we lost Jean."

Scott frowned, looking at the ground as they walked. He was hit with an intense wave of guilt, feeling his stomach churn.

"But you're back now, and that's all that matters."

He nodded and gave her a weak smile, promising himself he would spend more time with the windrider so she wouldn't worry as much.

XXXXXXXXXX

Sabertooth prowled around the gate of the school on silent feet, trying to keep his scent from being blown too far inside the walls as he looked for Logan.

He spotted him quite easily, in fact. He was in the garage, bent under the hood of a car.

Logan paused, his hand on the dipstick. He'd taken it upon himself to change the oil and check the brakes of all the cars in the garage, seeing as he hadn't done so in a while. But now… It felt like there were ants crawling on his neck.

He was being watched.

Logan whirled around and caught some movement out of the corner of his eye. Dashing over to the edge of the property as fast as he could, he vaulted himself to the top of the wall. There was no evidence of anyone having been there, other than the stench he'd left behind…

"Sabretooth!"

Logan ran back into the mansion to start a security lockdown.

XXXXXXXXXX

A while later, Scott and Ororo arrived back at the mansion, surprised that the code didn't work at the gate, and Logan had to come out and get them. "Good. I was starting to get worried," he said, gruffly, getting in the back to hitch a ride as Scott drove to the garage.

"What for?" Storm asked worriedly, turning to look at him.

"I spotted Sabretooth today. Fucker was watchin' me from over the wall. I'm gonna have to go out lookin' for him tomorrow or the next day and make sure he ain't gonna stick around."

Scott frowned, gripping the steering wheel tighter. The thought of that awful, crazed lunatic watching _his_ Logan made him want to hurt something.

Surprised at his own thoughts, he almost didn't stop in time when he was pulling into the garage and Logan yelled at him a little bit for almost scuffing up the paint job he'd recently finished.

_My Logan? Since when is he MY Logan?_

Once inside the mansion, Scott spotted Jubilee and Rogue being dragged toward Logan by their ears. Attached to the hands pulling on those ears was a very disgruntled Hank, who had a bunch of cake and creamy mush stuck to many parts of his fur.

"I believe you might want to take care of these," he growled, handing the girls over to Logan. "Every single flat surface of my room and the medlab is absolutely covered!"

Logan sniffed the air. "In twinkies?"

"Yes, in twinkies!" he hissed.

Scott bit his lip, trying not to laugh. Tamer than Hank and Warren's old pranks when they were in school, sure. But it was still funny as hell.

"Do you know anything about this?" Logan grunted at Scott.

"Uh…"

"Kids," the Canadian grunted. "You all oughta be whacked."

Hank shook his head, seeing that Logan wasn't going to do much more than that.

"All three of you are going to spend the rest of the night cleaning the medlab," he growled. "And tomorrow, you can start on my room at lunch and after school."

"What, hey! I never even confirmed that I knew about it!" Scott complained.

He shut up quickly at the look Hank gave him. Obviously the blue mutant was about to take a page out of Logan's book and start whacking if there was much more annoyance tonight.

Storm and Logan walked off together and Scott's shoulders slumped, dejected.

"I can't believe I have to spend another two days _cleaning_."

XXXXXXXXXX

AN/ I have too, too much fun terrorizing Scott. I hope you're all pleased with the Fluff and plot development. :)

Drop me a line, please! Even if it's anonymous! I'd love to know if there's still as many people interested in this story.


	15. Monarch Rum Is Awful

**AN/**I got this anonymous review earlier. _Eyeroll _When it's me speaking, it's in bold italics.

From: disgusted anon () _**First of all, if you weren't such a pussy, you wouldn't leave a flame like this anonymously.**_

/gagging/

ewwwwwwwwwww

what the hell wrong with you? _**Do you have all day, sweetheart? ;)**_

i am confused by a lot of this _**No wonder you're confused. You're not even smart enough to use punctuation and capitalization, let alone understand a story with complex emotions**__._

as a man discipling a young WOMAN you need to be CAREFUL! _**You know what? He was careful. I can tell you he didn't leave bruises or anything of the sort.**_

logan is perverted he should not be spanking rogue like this _**Yes he should. She ignored all his warnings and if he's a good mentor/parent, he'll follow through with what he said he would do.**_

she should talk to professor x as soon as possible because no

one should have to go through that ESPECIALLY if you are a

YOUNG WOMAN / logan is a perv / _**Jesus. 'No one should have to go through this'? Then why in hell have you read through eleven chapters of a story that I warned would feature spanking? And Logan's only pervy for Ororo. And Ororo with Raven. Threesome, babeh. Is that another thing that's 'wrong with me'? :p**_

this is absolutely sick and definitely not within the realm of a

appropriate behavior _**To each their own. It's fiction, moron.**_

FACT_ men become instantly aroused at the sight of a young

FEMALS GENITALIA / harvard university / _**Logan wasn't looking at her genitals. They were there, obviously, but he wasn't staring at them. He was watching her ass. Get your facts straight.**_

that being said logan obviously gets off on this! _**Um, no. No he doesn't. I didn't write that in. That would be gross.**_

i would call child services _**Well, chickadee, that's you. If you don't believe in the spanking of minors, don't spank your own hellspawn if/when you have them. And stop reading spanking stories.**_

/ logan stop being a perv pedophile / _**Anon, stop being an asshat.**_

there is no reason that he would need to see her exposed

buttocks and genitalia to administer a punishment especially

when he is NOT her FATHER! _**Her real father didn't want a mutant in his house, so Logan is a much better replacement. He loves and understands her. And I think it would be bad parenting for him to spank her over her clothes, seeing as he's the goddamn wolverine and he's really strong. Giving a serious spanking when he can't see the kind of marks he's leaving would be the REAL abuse.**_

_**Another point, do you really think it would be better if her father was seeing her genitalia? If you consider this sexual abuse (which it isn't, moron) then I would think that it would be even more scarring for her father to be the one doing it. Just sayin'.**_

ITS CHILD SEXUALL ABUSE! _**No it's not. Go get fucked, troll. Maybe then you wouldn't be so upTIGHT. OhyesIdid.**_

Just because I allow anonymous reviews does not mean I allow stupid ass bullshit like this. If you act like an asswad/troll, I'm going to dispute you.

XXXXXXXXXX

Scott sighed as he washed his hands free of twinkie debris. He, Jubilee, and Rogue had spent the last hour and a half removing all the twinkies from the floors, tabletops, and counters of the medlab. It wasn't nearly as bad as he'd thought it was going to be. Sure, his arms got tired after a while having to gather the little cakes up, but he'd had the constant banter and jokes from Marie and Jubilee. It had gone much faster than he'd thought. He wasn't too annoyed with Hank for making him do it, either. After all, he had helped get them all there.

He also hadn't really had any problems with being in the medlab for any length of time. He'd really been avoiding coming down here since Jean's death, but Hank had changed the lab completely. All the tables were moved around, there were new beds in the back rooms, and a new desk in the corner. He'd also added bookshelves, although many of the books were not housed inside. Rather, they were scattered about in odd places, with sticky notes in the pages and left open to the last part he'd been reading in.

Seeing as it wasn't truly Jean's domain anymore, like their room had been, it was easy to be in there.

In the times between conversation with Rogue and Jubilee, he'd also had some time to think. Obviously, this whole thing with Logan wasn't going to go away. There were a few things Scott was resentful of, but the most annoying part was how he realized that Logan did all of those things for his own good.

He decided he'd have to have a man to man talk with Logan sooner or later and explain that he didn't need help anymore. Not this kind of help. He wasn't completely healed, but he'd muddle through it on his own.

Scott set out with purpose toward the Professor's office, where he knew Logan would be.

XXXXXXXXXX

"I can see why you would want to go after him, Logan, but don't you think you have more pressing responsibilities here?" Xavier sighed, shifting out of his wheelchair to sit on the couch next to the feral mutant. Logan helped him out, disentangling the professor's useless legs from the footrests of his wheelchair.

The old man smiled in gratitude.

"Charlie, I know I've started some shit here these past few days," Logan sighed, settling back into the couch cushions. "But I've got a bad feelin' about this, and I've learned to really trust my instincts over the years. Somethin' horrible always happens when I ignore feelin's like these."

Charles shook his head in resignation. "Alright, Logan. But my own instincts are telling me to try and make you stay here."

Logan shrugged. That was just too bad for the old man. His mind was made up.

"Where are you going?" Scott asked from the door, where he'd been standing silently for a few moments. He'd walked in on the tail end of the conversation. Logan motioned for him to come in and shut the door, which he did.

"I'm gonna follow after Sabretooth. There's somethin' goin' on here," Logan sighed.

Scott stopped in his tracks, looking at the two on the couch. All thoughts of his serious talk with Logan suddenly vanished. He found himself really not wanting him to leave. What if he got hurt?

"Logan, you can't do that," he protested once he found his voice. Wolverine raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, Scotty? Any good reason why I shouldn't?"

Finding his legs again, Scott walked over to the couch and sat between Logan and the professor.

"Because you might be hurt," he frowned. "You should stay here."

Logan smiled at that. The boy was concerned for him. That was one hell of a step past their previously aggressive relationship. He wrapped an arm around Scott, rubbing his shoulder comfortingly.

"Scott, judging by the snatches of memories I've seen in my dreams, I've lived a lotta years. I've got my healing factor. I'll be just fine."

Scott still didn't look too sure and Logan sighed. "Look, if I run into any trouble, I promise you I'll contact you with my coordinates. You can bring a whole slew of X-Men. But I highly doubt anything like that will happen."

The younger man was about to say something, but the Professor interrupted. "Believe me, Scott, he isn't going to change his mind. You and I both know how incredibly stubborn Logan can be."

"And Ororo's already made me promise to call her every night," Logan interjected. "I'll call you, too."

Scott nodded. He still really, really didn't like this. Logan was leaving him on his own. What if something happened? What if he got in a mood… Felt awful. What if he couldn't bring himself out of a funk that he got himself into? What if he shut himself up in his room again and wouldn't come out? At the moment, Scott didn't really know what his emotions would bring. He'd kind of been counting on Logan to be his sense of stability. He realized now that putting that much stock in one person was what destroyed him when he lost Jean.

"When are you leaving?" he asked tentatively.

"Early tomorrow morning. It's sudden, but I can't waste any time with this guy. He makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up…" Logan trailed off, seeing snatches of a younger Sabretooth in his mind. "And I think we're connected. In some way, I knew this guy before. I need to chase after that. I need to make sure he doesn't come here and hurt people. You, Ororo, Rogue… Or anyone else in the mansion," he sighed.

This was obviously very important to Logan, and Scott wasn't going to try much harder to get in his way, much as he wanted to.

"I'm going to get some sleep then," he sighed, standing from the couch. Logan stood with him and pulled him into a big, crushing bear hug, which made the younger man flush with embarrassment, although he fiercely returned the gesture.

"I'll be fine," Logan promised, letting him go.

Scott nodded skeptically, then left the room. He passed Marie in the hallway and couldn't help but give his partner in crime a grin and a wink as he passed.

She was happy Scott was walking the opposite direction, as she didn't think she could grin back at the moment. She made her way to the professor's Study.

"Professor?" Rogue called, knocking lightly at the door and opening it to poke her head in. "Oh. You're busy…"

"Nah, darlin', it's fine. I was just about to go hang out with our resident blue furball," Logan said, making his way over to her. "It's time for our weekly therapy session," he joked, mimicking knocking back a shot of liquor as he left the room.

She glanced over at Xavier as the door closed behind Logan.

"Ah've been having some problems," she sighed. "With mah psyches. Eric especially. He never shuts up!" she complained, making her way over to the couch and sitting next to him.

He gave a sympathetic look, and raised his hands to her temples. "Well then, calm your mind and I'll have a look."

Rogue bit her lip and closed her eyes, lowering her mental shields.

What Xavier found there was a bit confusing. It was obvious at first what part of the astral plane was Rogue's and what was someone else's. A great majority of the foreign space was devoted to Erik's mind, one he knew well. The other strong mind inside hers was Logan's. There were a few other psyches, but they were very weak and Charles couldn't even properly identify most of them as people. They were nothing but fragments.

Eric and Logan, on the other hand, had a very strong establishment in her mind. He got the feeling that if he turned Marie's mindscape into a more landscape format and made himself a presence there rather than an onlooker, he would meet Logan and Erik as well as Marie.

What alarmed him was that as he watched, parts of the three prominent psyches would blend together and intermesh, though they would usually spring back apart once her mind recognized that they were incompatible parts. This was usually how the mind of someone with a multiple personality disorder would look. The parts of the whole would try to connect normally, but the brain would repair itself by forcing them apart.

"Ah've tried putting up mental walls," she said softly, pulling him out of her mind. "Like ya told me to do. But it hurts."

"Yes, I can see why that may be," Charles frowned, opening his eyes and looking at her. "The mind is trying to do its natural job and mesh the three strong personalities together. Yours, Eric's, and Logan's. See, as we mature and grow physically, so do our minds. Any normal, healthy mind is constantly adding onto their personality. But the psyches are stunting your growth. Your mind is not producing and strengthening your personality any more than what is already established, because there's already so much more it needs to mesh in with your current personality. What I will need to do is find another telepath to help me with some delicate procedures… We need to lock Logan and Eric up in their own little corners of your mind so they're not interfering with your personal growth and distracting your subconscious. But at the same time, I need to be very careful where I cut away, and very strong in my keeping those parts of personality from trying to re-attach to you before they can be secluded. That's why I'll need someone else, to be the brawn of the operation. I can't be the force and the precision all at once."

Marie nodded. It made sense to her, she supposed. If her mind and Eric's were connected, no wonder it hurt for her to try and slam up a wall against him. It would be like trying to put a wall between her fingernails and her fingers.

"For now, I'm afraid you'll just have to deal with him, Marie. At least he doesn't seem malicious toward you. Just very outspoken."

"I was afraid you'd say something like that," she frowned, standing. "Thank you for your time, Professor."

XXXXXXXXXX

"Bet you're glad you keep a couch in here, eh, blue boy?" Logan grinned, strolling into the newly cleaned medlab with a bottle of cheap whiskey, two shot glasses, two regular glasses, and a bottle of coke. "Damn, but it smells of twinkies in here."

Hank rolled his eyes.

"Yes, and it's going to smell even more like twinkies in my bedroom while they sit in there overnight on the sheets and carpet and everywhere else," he sighed, taking off his reading glasses and rubbing the bridge of his blue nose. "I see you came prepared."

"Yep," Logan grunted, setting the shot glasses on the desk and pouring whiskey in each. "The kids are great and all, and I love Ororo, but I need some goddamn male bonding," he snorted.

Hank raised an eyebrow, grabbing his shot and knocking it back. He made a face and took a drink of his newly poured glass of coke. Logan had the worst taste at times. "Did you just say you love Ororo?"

Logan paused for a moment to take his shot, then nodded. "Yep. That's what I said."

"Have you told her that?"

"Nah. Too soon."

Hank gave him a look. "You know you _both_ tend to be a bit intense, Logan."

He shrugged and poured another two shots.

"And before that, you said 'kids'. Plural. Am I correct in assuming you meant Rogue and Scott?" Hank paused long enough for the Canadian mutant to nod. "I know you've taken Scott under your wing, so to speak, but he _is_ and adult."

"Henry, the boy is an adult when he's out on the field," Logan sighed. "He's strong and intelligent, and a good leader. But I can assure you that in his personal life, he ain't anymore grown up inside than any other mixed up kid. The professor even chalked up some of his recent behavior as belated teen rebellion."

Hank shrugged at that. "I do admit he didn't really rebel much, if at all, when he was a teenager. I knew him then. He was mostly trying to impress Jean, who was a few years older than him."

"Chuck said somethin' about that. And you know, when he acts like an adult, I'll treat him like one. I don't have any problems with that. But… Take Marie. She's gonna be all grown up in the blink of an eye, and I'll still think of her as my kid. Shit, I'll think of her as my kid when she's sixty years old. That ain't a label that ever goes away once it's there, really."

Hank smiled at that, watching Logan take his shot. "You are truly an introvert, Logan."

"Are you gonna drink that, you crazy furball?" he snorted, shaking his head.

"I suppose I should explain myself," Hank chuckled, taking the shot and making another face. "Good lord, Logan, where did you get this? It's awful."

"It's a four dollar bottle from that place near Rite Aid. And yeah, I want you to explain that introvert crap. I ain't disputin' it, but it came outta nowhere."

"Of course, my friend. You see, one of the most common myths about introverts is that they don't like people. On the contrary, Introverts intensely value the few friends they have. They can count their close friends on one hand. And if you are lucky enough for an introvert to consider you a friend, you probably have a loyal ally for life. Once you have earned their respect as being a person of substance, you're in. Of course, you've lived long enough and made enough friends that you probably can't count them on one hand anymore," he said, amused.

"I'm certainly in my head enough to be considered an introvert," he snorted. "And yeah, Hank, that sounds pretty damn true to life."

"In fact, Logan, every one of the top ten disputed myths about introverts applies to you," Hank went on, pulling his shot glass out of the way before Logan could pour him another.

"It's just Monarch, you wine snob," Logan snorted, taking another drink.

"Logan, don't act like you couldn't differentiate similar wines by their tastes." The blue mutant shook his head.

Logan shrugged noncommittally and took a seat on the raggedy green couch by the desk. Hank kept it down here for those many nights that he couldn't be bothered to go up to his room after hours of research.

"You know, I really do care about the boy," Logan said after a comfortable silence.

"I know you do. I doubt you would go to the trouble of taking him over your knee if you didn't care about him."

Logan raised an eyebrow.

"I'm a doctor, Wolverine. Don't think I don't see how he's been shifting in his seat at meals since you got involved. Although I must say, I'm very pleased about him appearing at meals again at all. He was getting rather gaunt and hasn't been touching the vitamins I told him to take."

"I'll talk to him about that," Logan tutted, sipping on his Coke. Hank just gave him an easy smile.

"No, I will. You might be the parent, but I'm the doctor."

"Don't let him hear you calling me his parent," he snorted. "He'd pitch a fit and I'd have to send him to bed."

"You're horrible, Logan," Hank admonished, holding out his shot glass. Logan grinned, pouring another shot for his furry friend.

"It grows on ya, don't it? That's because I got the Canadian rum," he smirked.

Hank knocked back the horrible rum and shook his head. "It doesn't grow on me. Not at all. I think I just forgot how awful it was."

"I'll get Dark Honey next time."

There was a companionable silence for a while as Hank put away and marked the night's research and they both had a few more shots. McCoy was not usually a drinker, but Logan liked to 'hang out' like that, so Hank didn't mind it as long as he had no early classes the next day.

He eventually joined Logan on the couch and he told Hank of his plans to leave the next morning and how Scott took the news in the Professor's office.

"He's grown more attached to you than he'd like to admit," Hank smiled.

"Reverse processes of grief of abandonment?" Logan mused.

"I think that's exactly what this is, actually," the blue man nodded. "He's already reversed through detachment—All that avoidance and surly attitude he's been so keen on lately."

"That mean's he's at despair," Logan frowned, thinking about how that might start to affect the man.

"Yes, and then protest. I think that will be the most trying time for you two."

"Oh god," Logan groaned. "Imagine the kind of rebellion that stage will bring."

"Yes, but the attachment at the last stage will be worth it," Hank smiled. Logan simply shook his head, taking another shot.

"Whose the guy that did that research, anyway?"

"That would be John Bowlby's Attachment Theory." Hank gave his friend a smile. "You're much more well read than you come across as, Logan."

He shrugged. "I've always liked readin'. You'll be surprised how much of it you do when you're on the road without any company but your bloody knuckles," he smirked.

"I'm sure it helps that you've got a vast selection both from the library in the east wing and Xavier's personal collection in his office. Not many have gained his trust well enough to be allowed full access to that collection, you know."

"Well, that's probably because not many people should be trusted well enough to read Destiny's diaries," Logan tutted. "You read any of those?"

"Skimmed. But I rather prefer the flavor of life if it's a surprise."

"Surprises ain't nearly so flavorful when you're as old as I am, Henry," he snorted. "Although I didn't read much more than a few pages here and there. Some deep dark shit in there."

"Perhaps you should look back through and see if you may find some insight as to why Sabretooth is lurking about?"

"Maybe," the Canadian nodded, refreshing their glasses of chaser. "Although most of the stuff in there had a much larger affect on the whole rather than the personal. With the exception of the people close to her, of course. You know a guy named Forge?"

"I certainly know _of_ him, but I've only met him once."

"He gets together with that hellcat, Mystique."

Hank shook his head. "I find that hard to believe. Forge is a man of science and engineering… what would he be doing with a criminal?"

Logan got a sly smirk on his face. "She _can_ be anyone you want her to be…"

Hank shook his head. "One moment you seem so well read, the next you're a lecher. I hope Ororo can straighten you out."

Logan simply poured another drink, a broad grin on his face.

XXXXXXXXXX

Okay, I know there's not a hell of a lot of action here. Rather a wordy chapter, if you ask me. But there's some insight to Marie and Scott's heads, and some Logan/Hank bonding. God I love those two as buddies. I really could have kept on with them like that for another ten pages, but I didn't want to bore anyone. ;) More Hank in the next chapter, Logan leaves, some Ororo. Lots of Scott for sure.

I grabbed a lot of stuff from the comics in this chapter. Such as Logan being a reader. I don't know if he's much for Psych texts, but I certainly wouldn't put it past his character. ;) My Wolverine encyclopedia says that his favorite book is Walden by Henry David Thoreaux. Not sure if I spelled the name right, nor do I care enough to go get my own copy of Walden and find out.

So, sorry this took so long to get out. My muse was like "BYE BYE MOTHAFUCKA!" and I was like "WAIT NO DON'T LEAVE ME! **forever alone**"

Ahem. Yeah. I want to give a special thanks to smexyfranz89, who has given me wonderfully long winded and incredibly helpful critiques which really made me consider character depth and progression a lot more. So blame her if there's a bit too much wordy psychobabble here. ;) It made me want to read a bunch of articles and make my own theories.

This AN is too long now, so I just want to end with a thank you to everyone who's reviewed (except 'disgusted anon' ;] ) an everyone who hasn't reviewed yet.

Please drop me a line!

-Zandra


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